Powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake strikes western China causing widespread damage

A powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Kyrgyzstan-China border region during the early hours of Thursday, injuring several people and damaging over 120 houses amid freezing temperatures.

The temblor jolted the Uchturpan county in Aksu prefecture in China's western Xinjiang region shortly after 2am, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre. The epicentre was at a depth of 22km in the sparsely populated mountainous border area.

About 200 rescuers were dispatched to the epicentre following reports of at least six people suffering injuries. About 47 houses collapsed, 78 houses were damaged and some agricultural structures collapsed, the government of the XinjiangUygur Autonomous Region said on social media.

China's Ministry of Emergency Management said several departments coordinated relief efforts, providing cotton tents, coats, quilts, mattresses, folding beds and heating stoves.

Nearly 40 aftershocks up to 5.3 magnitude have been recorded till 8am (local time), authorities added.

This quake comes a month after 151 people died after one of the deadliest earthquakes in nearly a decade struck China's Gansu province in December 2023.

Thursday's jolt downed power lines but electricity was quickly restored, authorities in Aksu said.

The Urumqi Railroad Bureau resumed services after 7am (local time) following safety checks that confirmed no problems on the train lines. The suspension had affected 23 trains, the bureau serving the Xinjiang capital said on its official Weibo account.

The US Geological Survey said the quake measured 7.0 magnitude and occurred in the seismically active Tian Shan mountain range. It said the area's largest quake in the past century was 7.1 magnitude and occurred in 1978 about 200km (124 miles) to the north of one early Tuesday.

The earthquake tremors were reportedly felt strongly hundreds of kilometres away in Urumqi, Korla, Kashgar, Yining and surrounding areas. Parts of South Asia, including northern India also felt the jolt.

Ma Shengyi, a 30-year-old pet shop owner living in Tacheng, 600km from the epicentre, said her dogs started barking before she felt her apartment building shudder. The quake was so strong her neighbors ran downstairs. Ms Ma rushed to her bathroom and started to cry, she told Associated Press.

"There's no point in running away if it's a big earthquake," she said. "I was scared to death.

The Uchturpan county is mostly made up of the Uyghurs Muslims and had a population of around 233,000 people in 2022. The region is heavily militarised and state broadcaster CCTV showed paramilitary troops moving in before dawn to clear rubble and set up tents for those displaced.

Uyghurs are routinely targeted by the Xi Jinping government through state campaigns of forced assimilation and mass detention.

Uchturpan county is recording temperatures well below freezing, with lows down to negative 18C forecast by the China Meteorological Administration this week.

In nearby Kazakhstan, the emergencies ministry reported the latest earthquake at a magnitude of 6.7. Residents in Almaty city fled their houses and gathered outside despite cold weather.

The tremors, followed by aftershocks about 30 minutes later, were also felt in Uzbekistan, Reuters reported.

Earthquakes are common in western China, including in Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, as well as the Xinjiang region and Tibet.

An earthquake that hit Sichuan in 2008 killed nearly 90,000 people. The collapse of schools and other buildings led to a yearslong effort to rebuild using more quake-resistant materials.

Meanwhile, in Yunnan province rescue workers were still searching for victims buried by a landslide Monday in the village of Liangshui. Eleven bodies have been recovered, and two survivors were rescued from among the 47 people buried in 18 homes in freezing cold and falling snow.