6.8-magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan kills at least seven; strongest to hit province since 2013

BEIJING: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck China's Sichuan on Monday, the strongest to hit the region since 2017, killing at least seven people and shaking the provincial capital of Chengdu and other provinces. Some roads and homes near the epicentre were damaged by landslides, while communications were down in at least one area, according to state television.

The epicentre was at the town of Luding at a depth of 16 km (10 miles), the China Earthquake Networks Centre said, about 226 km (140 miles) southwest of Chengdu, a city of about 21 million people.

An aftershock of a magnitude of 4.2 struck the city of Yaan, about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Chengdu, minutes later.

Earthquakes are common in the southwestern province of Sichuan, especially its mountains in the west, a tectonically active area along the eastern boundary of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.

In Luding, the quake was so strong it was hard for some people to remain standing while cracks appeared on some houses, according to state media China News Service.

Video clips posted on social media showed lights swinging while people rushed out of buildings into the streets.

A total of 39,000 people live within a 20-km (12.5 miles) radius of the epicentre and 1.55 million within a 100-km (62 miles) radius, according to state television.

The quake was Sichuan's biggest since April 2013 when a magnitude 7.0 quake hit the city Yaan, killing more than 100 people and injuring thousands.

The most powerful Sichuan earthquake on record was in May 2008 when a magnitude 8.0 quake centred in Wenchuan killed almost 70,000 people and caused extensive damage.

Monday's quake was felt as far away as Changsha in Hunan province and Xian in Shaanxi province hundreds of kilometres away, according to social media posts.