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Earthquake in China Kills at Least Eight

Posted on: Monday, 1 December 2003, 06:00 CST

A strong earthquake rumbled through a swath of western China's mountainous Xinjiang region Monday, killing at least eight people and causing some homes to collapse in an area near the border with Kazakhstan, the government said.

The 6.1-magnitude quake, in the sparsely populated Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, hit at 9:38 a.m. Monday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said the quake was felt for many miles around.

"I was just getting up out of bed, and everything in my house was rattling. The wall was vibrating," said a resident of Zhaosu County, where the quake hit hard. He identified himself only as Mr. Wu. "Fortunately, my house is made out of brick - not wood and sand."

At least eight people were confirmed dead, said an official at the Xinjiang Seismological Bureau who gave only his surname, Xie.

"Houses that were built in the 1960s and 1970s all collapsed," Xie said. He couldn't say how many structures came down.

The U.S. Geological Service's National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado confirmed the tremor but said it was slightly less strong - magnitude 5.7.

Rescue teams were en route to the area, Xinhua said, and investigators for the State Seismological Bureau were also on the way.

"My house is alright, but there are other houses in our town that have collapsed," said Ha Lidan, a woman who lives in Zhaosu County.

Xinjiang, a seismically active area, was the site of the most lethal quake in China this year - a magnitude-6.8 temblor on Feb. 24 that killed 268 people.

China's deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing some 240,000 people. Its magnitude was measured at 7.8 to 8.2.

Though China's western regions are known for their earthquakes, the number of fatal quakes in recent months - at least a half-dozen - has been noteworthy.

Last week, a magnitude-5 earthquake struck a remote area of the southwestern province of Yunnan, injuring 20 people and knocking down two-thirds of the houses in an impoverished county. That quake was the fourth to hit Yunnan in the past five months. A tremor of magnitude-6.2 on July 21 killed 16 people.

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