The provisional toll from the violent 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Wushi county, Aksu prefecture, a remote area of Xinjiang in China is at least 50 injured.
The quake, which at the time would not have caused casualties, was recorded at 2.09 local time (5.09 pm on Monday in Italy), according to the latest findings released by the China Earthquake Networks Center, in a vast sparsely inhabited area.
The epicenter, with a depth of 22 kilometers, was identified in a town in Wushi county, within the mountainous border area between China and Kyrgyzstan.
According to the Xinjiang Earthquake Agency, there are five villages in Wushi county most directly affected, located within 20 kilometers of the epicenter.
The rescue efforts, which mobilized dozens of people and vehicles, found the collapse of residential houses and the unusability of some roads, helping several dozen injured people, according to authorities cited by state media.
The most serious were transported to hospital.
Within a few hours of the main earthquake, an earthquake swarm was recorded with further earthquakes with a maximum magnitude of 5.3, recorded shortly after 9am local time.
The tremors were felt mainly in the Aksu area, but also in various cities and prefectures in Xinjiang, including Urumqi, Hotan and Kashgar.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA