Magnitude 7 earthquake hits touristy Jiuzhaigou area in central China

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Magnitude 7 earthquake hits touristy Jiuzhaigou area in central China

5:28 CAT | 08 Aug 2017

The Straits Times / Screen grab from twitter video / Debris were found scattered on the ground after the earthquake.

A magnitude 7 earthquake followed by a magnitude 3.3 aftershock struck the Jiuzhaigou area in central China famed for its natural beauty and popular with tourists late on Tuesday (Aug 8), state news agency Xinhua reported.

The quake hit Jiuzhaigou county at 9:19pm on Tuesday at a depth of 20km, Xinhua reported, citing the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC). The epicentre was initially monitored at 33.20 degrees north latitude and 103.88 degrees east longitude – not far from the area hit by a quake in May 2008 which killed almost 70,000 people.

The aftershock hit the same area at 9:41pm, the centre said according to Chinese media reports.

The quake triggered an evacuation at the Jiuzhaigou airport and authorities are inspecting the building facilities. No flights are affected.

Shaking was felt in the provincial capital Chengdu and as far away as Xian, home of the Terracotta Warriors, according to users of Chinese social media monitored by Reuters.

Walls of many houses in Jiuzhaigou county have collapsed while rock falls have been reported along the road leading from the Jiuzhaigou scenic area to the county, Sichuan Daily online reported.

Jiuzhaigou’s Majia township committee secretary Zeng Heqing told a China News Service reporter: “I was working in a village and I felt the grounding moving.”

He added that some villages are said to be badly damaged and no casualties are known.

State television cited a resident in a village near Jiuzhaigou as saying no buildings had collapsed, but that there had been strong shaking and people had fled outdoors.

This story is developing.