Strong earthquake, aftershocks hit China's far west

China National News (IANS) Friday 21st March, 2008

A powerful earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale shook a remote area of China's far west near the border between its Xinjiang and Tibet regions early Friday and was followed by three aftershocks, US and Chinese earthquake-monitoring agencies said.

The earthquake rocked many buildings in villages near Xinjiang's Yutian town and forced evacuation of 144 families from one village, state media said.

Teams of police, medical workers and seismologists were travelling to villages near the epicentre but there were no immediate reports of casualties in the sparsely populated area.

The quake at 6:33 a.m. was located about 230 km southeast of the Xinjiang city of Hotan at a depth of 23 km below the Kunlun Mountains, the US Geological Survey said.

The quakes were felt most strongly in the settlements of Aqqan and Boshan, where a total of 13,400 people live, the reports said.