Northwest China has been shaken by a severe earthquake. There are no reports of deaths or injuries yet. The magnitude 7.1 quake is said to have been felt as far away as the Indian capital New Delhi.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake has struck a remote part of western China’s Xinjiang region. China’s state news agency
There are currently no reports of fatalities. However, the US Earthquake Monitoring Service (USGS) warns that “significant damage” and fatalities are to be expected.
According to the USGS, the earthquake occurred in the Tian Shan Mountains, a seismically active region where earthquakes of this magnitude are rare. State television broadcaster CCTV reported that there had been 14 aftershocks since the main quake, two of which were above magnitude 5.0.
vibrations can be felt in neighboring countries
The tremors from the quake could even be felt in the Indian capital New Delhi, 1,400 kilometers away, as local TV stations reported. It was also felt in the neighboring countries of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In the Kazakh capital Almaty, people left their homes, the Russian news agency Tass reported. According to authorities in Aksu Prefecture, at least two houses there collapsed. CCTV reported that around 200 emergency services were deployed to the epicenter of the quake.
The Xinjiang railway authority also canceled dozens of trains in the region and closed affected sections. The quake hit a rural area that is predominantly inhabited by Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim minority belonging to the Turkic people. The Uyghur community has been affected by government policies of forced cultural assimilation and mass incarceration in recent years.
The region’s strongest quake in the past century was a magnitude 7.1 quake in 1978, about 200 kilometers north of Tuesday morning’s tremor.