At least 21 dead in earthquake in southwest China

At least 21 people were killed and multiple homes were “severely damaged” after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake hit southwestern China on Monday, according to local authorities and state media.

The tremor was recorded at 12:52 p.m. (0452 GMT) in the Sichuan mountain region.indicated the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The depth of the earthquake was estimated at 10 km and its epicenter was 39 km from Luding county, Chinese public television CCTV reported.

In a video released by the official Xinhua news agency, hanging lamps were seen swinging and pieces of buildings on the ground. Also rocks that blocked a road.

The tremor was felt in several cities in the province, including the regional capital Chengdu, some 200 kilometers from the epicenter and which has 21 million inhabitants, currently confined due to an outbreak of covid-19.

The city of Ya’an reported 14 dead in its rural canton of Shimian, close to the epicenter, according to public television CCTV.

These victims add to the seven dead announced hours earlier by the neighboring prefecture of Garze, which administers the canton of Luding. At the moment, a total of 21 deaths have been registered.

“Houses were badly damaged” and telephone lines were interrupted in some places, he added.

The tremor was “relatively strong”, A resident of Chengdu, called Chen, told AFP that she did not want to give her full name.

“Some of my downstairs neighbors said they had noticed it very clearly,” he added.

As Chengdu is currently under lockdown, “people are not allowed to leave their residential compounds, and many have rushed into the courtyards” of homes, it added.

At the moment, the authorities did not report damage in the city.

Earthquake in China / Photo: AFP

The Chengdu authorities extended the confinement of its inhabitants on Sunday after detecting hundreds of new cases of coronavirus these days.

Near the epicenter of Monday’s earthquake, telecommunications with Moxi, a small town of 7,000 inhabitants, were cut offindicated the public television CGTN.

More than 500 firefighters and rescuers were dispatched to the epicenter, the Xinhua news agency reported.

A video released by the China Center for Earthquake Networks shows several rocks rolling down a hill in Luding County, kicking up clouds of dust.

According to the agency, Several aftershocks occurred in the surroundings of the first earthquake.

A resident of Chongqing, whose center is located more than 400 km from the epicenter, told AFP that the tremor was felt “very clearly”.

“I was rather scared. But it doesn’t seem like it worried the people here too much,” he explains.

The highly mountainous province of Sichuan, famous for its panda reserves, regularly experiences earthquakes of varying intensity.

In June, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck the province, causing at least four deaths and dozens of injuries.

In May 2008, a very powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.9 caused 87,000 deaths or missing in Sichuan, a catastrophe that shocked the world.