As many as 11 people were killed and around 122 injured when a major earthquake rocked China on Monday morning.
The earthquake that measured 6.0 magnitude in the Richter scale shook Changning County of Yibin City at 10:55 pm on Monday (local time) and according to the China Earthquake Centre (CENC), the second tremor of magnitude 5.3 hit the area on Tuesday morning. Reports said that it might hit again in next 24 hours.
People rushed into the streets and cracks were left in some buildings by the quakes, pictures posted on the social media accounts of state media showed.
Meanwhile, rescuers pulled some people out of rubble alive near the epicentre, in a largely rural area, state television added.
The Ministry of Emergency Management sent firefighting crews and other rescue personnel, Xinhua said. The Ministry and the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration have dispatched 5,000 tents, 10,000 folding beds and 20,000 quilts to the quake-hit areas.
China’s worst earthquake in recent years struck the mountainous western portion of Sichuan province in 2008, killing nearly 90,000 people. That earthquake was about 400 kilometres from Monday’s quake.
A 1976 earthquake centered in the northeastern city of Tangshan killed at least 250,000 people.