At least four people were killed Wednesday after a magnitude-6.1 earthquake struck central Sichuan in southwest China.
The quake hit around 5 p.m. local time, centred on Lushan county, near the city of Ya’an, around 110 kilometres from the provincial capital of Chengdu, according to the government-run China Earthquake Networks Centre.
The depth of the quake was 17 kilometres, CENC said. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a slightly lower magnitude of 5.9 and measured the quake as being 10 kilometres deep.
At least four people were killed and 14 injured as a result of the quake, state media reported Wednesday evening. Around 1,400 firefighters from across the province have been mobilized for rescue and recovery efforts.
Sichuan is prone to earthquakes because of its position in western China, near where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide. In 2013, Lushan was struck by a magnitude 7.0 quake which left almost 200 people dead.
The most devastating earthquake to hit Sichuan was in 2008, when a magnitude 8.0 quake centred on Wenchuan county rocked the entire province, collapsing buildings and causing landslides, with shock waves felt as far away as Russia. Almost 90,000 people were killed in that disaster, thousands of them children crushed inside poorly built schools.
With a file from Alexandra Li.
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