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Rescue operation in Sichuan province
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Cheng Xueli / AP
At least 46 people were killed in a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in southwest China, state broadcaster CCTV said.
50 other people were injured and 16 were missing.
According to the state broadcaster, Monday's earthquake in Sichuan province triggered landslides that caused serious damage to buildings.
Power went out in some areas.
The epicenter of the quake was about 10 kilometers deep about 40 kilometers southeast of the city of Kangding in Sichuan province, according to the US Earthquake Monitor (USGS).
Several aftershocks were later recorded in Sichuan.
The tremors of the earthquake were also felt in the metropolises of Chengdu and Chongqing.
A magnitude 4.6 tremor struck eastern Tibet, according to the USGS.
The situation on site is confusing.
Authorities in the city of Ya'an, near the epicenter, reported 17 fatalities, according to CCTV.
The neighboring district of Garze therefore counted 29 dead.
Boulders and parts of buildings fell down
The Xinhua News Agency circulated images of chandeliers dangling from building ceilings and concrete parts of buildings falling.
The state earthquake network center released images of boulders falling down the mountains in Luding district, causing huge clouds of dust.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that at least one city had suffered severe damage from landslides triggered by the earthquake.
The connecting road to another place is blocked, and the telecommunications connections to areas with more than 10,000 inhabitants are interrupted.
When lockdown meets earthquake
In Chengdu, where the quake was also felt, a corona lockdown was extended on Monday after hundreds of new corona cases were registered there in a few days.
The problem: Because of the corona restrictions, the residents of the economic metropolis did not run into the streets after the tremors, but into the courtyards of their apartment buildings, as a resident named Chen described.
Earthquakes are common in China, especially in the mountainous regions in the west and south-west of the country.
In the region around Yunnan Province, where more than 100,000 people live, the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
In June, two earthquakes killed at least four people and injured dozens in the south-west of the country.
In September 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake killed 87,000 people in Sichuan.
In 2010, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake killed around 3,000 people in Qinghai province.
To the west, China borders Afghanistan, among others.
An earthquake was reported from there on Monday, killing at least six people and injuring nine.
According to the authorities, the night-time earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 occurred in the east of the country on the border with Pakistan and could be felt in the capital Kabul.
In June, an earthquake in south-east Afghanistan killed more than a thousand people and injured thousands more.
sak/AFP
