6.5 quake hits China’s Xinjiang region, one dead

BEIJING—A powerful 6.5-magnitude quake rocked a mountainous area of far western China Friday night, with one person killed when a house collapsed in a region often plagued with seismic activity.

The tremor struck southern Xinjiang, a vast region bordering central Asia, at a relatively shallow depth of 12 kilometers (seven miles), the US Geological Survey said.

The quake hit near the Tajik border and some 170 kilometers west of the Chinese city of Kashgar.

One villager died due to a house collapse while six buildings suffered damage in the sparsely-populated area, the state news agency Xinhua said, citing local authorities.

Pakistani authorities said the quake had been felt in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the National Disaster Management Authority said. There were no reports of damage there.

The USGS said only a relatively small area would have perceived the shaking to be strong.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

6.5-magnitude quake reported in Colombia

BOGOTA—A 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled northwestern Colombia Tuesday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, authorities said.

The Seismological Network of Colombia said the quake struck at 10:43 a.m. (1543 GMT) in the Pacific Ocean, 99 kilometers (60 miles) from the town of Nuqui in the department of Antioquia.

Colombian authorities ruled out the threat of a tsunami.

The Colombian report said it was felt especially strongly in the city of Quibdo, the capital of the department of Choco, where people ran out into the streets.

It was also felt in the departments of Quindio and Tolima.

Colombian seismologists said the quake, which was at a depth of less than 30 kilometers (18 miles), had a reading of 6.5 on the Moment magnitude scale.

The US Geological Survey, reporting on the same event, measured the quake at 6.7 on the same scale.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Strong quake injures 20 in Taiwan

TAIPEI- A strong earthquake shook buildings in the Taiwanese capital Taipei on Wednesday, injuring at least 20 people and sparking a fire, emergency officials said.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 6.0 and said it struck at 10:03 a.m. (0203 GMT), 48 kilometers (30 miles) east of Nantou county in central Taiwan at a depth of 20.7 kilometers.

Taiwan’s central weather bureau put the magnitude at 6.1 and said it was felt across the island.

The national fire agency said at least 20 people were slightly injured in Nantou and nearby Changhua and Taichung counties during the quake, which also triggered a fire in Nantou that had since been extinguished.

The agency said it had received five reports of people trapped in lifts during the quake but they had all found their way to safety.

Cable news channel SET TV showed footage of one woman in Nantou being carried to an ambulance after she was hit in the head by fragments of a ceiling that came loose during the quake.

Taiwan’s high speed rail company said it had suspended all trains pending safety checks while the metro system in the capital Taipei was also temporarily suspended.

Many buildings in Taipei swayed while television footage showed some school children in Nantou fleeing their classrooms during the quake.

Nantou county was the epicenter of a 7.6-magnitude quake in September 1999 that killed around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s recent history.

Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net