A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck China\u2019s Sichuan province on Monday, the strongest to hit the region since 2017, killing more than 30 people and shaking the provincial capital of Chengdu and more distant provinces.
\nSome roads and homes near the epicentre were damaged by landslides, while communications were down in at least one area, state television reported.
\nNo damage to dams and hydropower stations within 50 kilometres of the epicentre was reported, although damage to the provincial grid had affected power to about 40,000 end-users.
\nThe epicentre was at the town of Luding, the China Earthquake Networks Centre said, in the mountains about 226km southwest of Chengdu.
\nPrime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was deeply saddened by the lives lost in the earthquake.
\n\u201cWe offer our profound condolences and most sincere sympathies to the bereaved families and stand by the government and people of China in this tragedy,\u201d he said.
\nEarthquakes are common in the southwestern province of Sichuan, especially in its mountains in the west, a tectonically active area along the eastern boundary of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.
\nLaura Luo, who lives in Chengdu, a city of about 21 million people, was on her way to her apartment block when she saw people rushing out of their high-rise homes in panic after getting earthquake warnings on their phones.
\n\u201cThere were many people who were so terrified they started crying,\u201d Luo, a PR consultant, told Reuters.
\n\u201cAll the dogs started barking. It was really quite scary,\u201d she said, referring to when the quake began.
\nIn Luding, the quake was so strong it was hard for some people to remain standing, while cracks appeared on some houses, the China News Service reported.
\nVideo clips on social media showed lights swinging while people rushed out of buildings into the streets.
\nSichuan\u2019s provincial government said more than 30 people had died. At least four of those were in Luding.
\nA total of 39,000 people live within 20km of the epicentre and 1.55m within 100km, according to state television.
\nThe quake was Sichuan\u2019s biggest since August 2017, when one of magnitude 7.0 hit the Aba prefecture.
\nThe most powerful Sichuan earthquake on record was in May 2008, when a magnitude 8.0 quake centred in Wenchuan killed almost 70,000 people and caused extensive damage.
\nMonday\u2019s quake was also felt in the provinces of Yunnan, Shaanxi and Guizhou hundreds of kilometres away, according to state media.
\nChengdu resident Samantha Yang, 23, was in bed about to take a nap when the quake struck.
\n\u201cThe building kept shaking, each time more severely than before,\u201d Yang said. \u201cTruly, this was the scariest one since the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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