A magnitude 5.5 earthquake shook the Xinjiang region in northwest China on Tuesday, with no casualties reported so far, the China Seismological Network Center reported.
The earthquake occurred at 9:46 a.m. (1:46 a.m. in Lisbon) and the epicenter was in the Artush region, in the province of Xinjiang, in an area bordering Kyrgyzstan, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The earthquake occurs after another tremor last night caused the death of at least 116 people in the province of Gansu, also in the northwest of the country.
So far the authorities have not reported victims or material damage in this earthquake.
This second earthquake occurred more than 3,000 kilometers from the first, in an area inhabited by the Uighur and Kyrgyz ethnic minorities.
Western China, home to the Tibet and Xinjiang autonomous regions and Gansu and Qinghai provinces, is frequently affected by earthquakes as it is close to the meeting point of the Asian and Indian tectonic plates in the Himalayas.
Source: TSF
