6.6 magnitude earthquake hits Zhang and Min counties in Gansu province, China

Mike Gallagher

Jul 21, 2013 - 22:34

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6.6 magnitude earthquake hits Zhang and Min counties in Gansu province, China

'Residents take shelter on a street after an earthquake in downtown Dingxi in northwest China's Gansu province on July 22

TWO strong earthquakes have devastated parts of weste China, killing at least 22 people and injuring 270 with villages cut off from contact.

The US Geological Survey measured the magnitude of the initial quake as 5.9 and the second at 5.6-magnitude in Gansu province. The Chinese govement measured the first quake at 6.6 magnitude

Rescuers are battling to reach survivors in remote areas.

The quake hit near the city of Dingxi in Gansu province, a region of mountains, desert and pastureland with a population of 26 million. That makes it one of China's more lightly populated provinces, although the Dingxi area has a greater concentration of farms and towns with a total population of about 2.7 million.

The death tollrose reached at least 22, China News Service reported, with 13 villages in Zhang county, northwest of the epicentre, cut off from outside contact.

A report on the 163.com inteet news portal said 500 troops including 120 specialised rescuers were on their way to the scene.

Pictures broadcast on state television showed rural villages with rubble-strewn streets and houses crumbled. Locals in Minxian county in Gansu province, said they saw trees and homes shaking, with the quake lasting for about one minute.

Earlier, an official suamed He from Minxian, said there were 19 dead and more than 200 injured in seven townships severely hit by the quakes. The Chinese govement measured the first earthquake at 6.6 magnitude

Deaths were also reported in Min County in the rural southe part of Dingxi municipality, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Residents described shaking windows and swinging lights but little major damage and little panic. Shaking was felt in the provincial capital of Lanzhou 177 kilometers north, and as far away as Xi'an, 400 kilometers to the east.

\"You could see the chandeliers wobble and the windows vibrating and making noise, but there aren't any cracks in the walls. Shop assistants all poured out onto the streets when the shaking began,'' said a front desk clerk at the Wuyang Hotel in the Zhang County seat about 40 kilometers from the epicenter. The clerk suamed Bao refrained from identifying herself further, as is common among ordinary Chinese.

The govement's earthquake monitoring center said the initial quake at 7:45 a.m. (8.45am AEST) was magnitude-6.6 and subsequent tremors included a magnitude-5.6.

The quake was shallow, which can be more destructive. The center said it struck about 20 kilometers beneath the surface, while the Gansu provincial earthquake administration said it was just 6 kilometers deep.

Much of weste China is prone to earthquakes.

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake in neighbouring Sichuan province killed about 200 people earlier this year, five years after almost 90,000 people were killed in a huge tremor in the same province.

China's worst earthquake in recent years was a 7.9-magnitude temblor that struck the southweste province of Sichuan in 2008, leaving 90,000 people dead or missing.

Dingxi is about 1,233 kilometers west of Beijing.