Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, February 24, 2003
Earthquake in Northwest China's Xinjiang Kills over 100
A strong earthquake that struck at 10.30 a.m. Monday morning (Beijing time) in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has killed over 100 people, according to latest reports.
A strong earthquake that struck at 10.30 a.m. Monday morning (Beijing time) in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has killed over 100 people, according to latest reports.
More than 1,000 houses and school buildings collapsed in a village in Bachu County, the epicenter of the earthquake that measured 6.8 degrees on the Richter scale.
Officials from the local government and seismological bureau have hurried to the village.
People's Liberation Army soldiers and rescue workers combed rubble for injured and dead from the mid-morning quake.
"It was very frightening. The earthquake happened when I was riding my bicycle to the office. I've never experienced this before," said Abuliti, an official at a branch of the People's Bank of China in Bachu County, said by telephone.
"We are working in the office now, our office building suffered little damage and nobody died in our bank, but some one-story houses collapsed," he said.
"Most people who died were those lived in villages some 60 km from the town (Bachu county)," he said.
Damage was also caused in uninhabited areas of Bachu County and Jiashi County, but no deaths were reported there.
The earthquake shook an area about 40 km east of Jiashi County in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
It occurred at latitude 39.5 degrees north and longitude 77.2 degrees east, according to the China Seismological Bureau.