The 6.8 magnitude earthquake that hit China’s Sichuan province on Monday, the strongest in the region since 2017, killed more than 30 people and shook the provincial capital Chengdu and beyond.
Some roads and houses near the epicenter were damaged by landslides, while communications were cut off in at least one area, state television reported.
No damage was reported at dams and hydroelectric power plants within 50 km of the epicenter, but damage to the provincial grid affected the power of around 40,000 users.
China’s earthquake center said the epicenter of the earthquake was in Luding city, in the mountains about 226km southwest of Chengdu.
Earthquakes are common in the southwest of Sichuan Province, particularly in the western mountains, which is a tectonically active region along the eastern border of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
The Sichuan provincial government said more than 30 people were killed. At least four of them were in Luding.
Laura Luo, who lives in Chengdu, a city of about 21 million, saw people who had received earthquake alerts on their phones on the way to her apartment, leaving the buildings in panic.
“Many people were so scared they started crying,” international public relations consultant told Reuters.
“All the dogs started barking. It was really scary,” he said, referring to the time the earthquake started.
source: Noticias
