Multiple quakes rattle northeast China
AFP
November 23, 2013, 11:42 pm
Jilin officials said more than 58,000 people were affected by the quakes (AFP/File, Frederick Florin)
Beijing (AFP) - Multiple earthquakes hit northeast China Saturday, with a 5.5 magnitude the strongest among them, according to seismologists, causing serious damage to homes.
The 5.5 magnitude quake hit at 6:04 am (2204 GMT Friday), 34 kilometres (21 miles) north of Changling in Jilin province at a shallow depth of 12.5 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.
It was followed around thirty minutes later by a 4.9 magnitude quake just south of Qian'an town, with a similar tremor felt a day earlier in the same area.
More than 58,000 people were affected by the quakes, with 16,094 evacuated and more than 18,000 homes damaged, Jilin province communications office said on its official weibo microblog account.
State TV images showed seriously damaged houses, some with roofs or walls partially collapsed.
Some villages lost power, according to Xinhua news agency.
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan province killed about 200 people in April, five years after almost 90,000 people were killed by a huge tremor in the same province.
