more than 30 dead after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake in the south-west of the country

A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck on Monday, September 5, a mountainous area in the southwest China. The provisional balance sheet, revised upwards, now shows “more than 30 dead”, according to national television. A previous report had mentioned at least 21 dead.

The tremor was recorded at 12:52 p.m. local time (6:52 a.m. French time) in Sichuan province, the USGS, the American institute for geological studies said (in English). The depth of the quake is estimated at 10 kilometers and the epicenter is 39 kilometers from Luding Township, CCTV said.

Confined residents

“Houses were seriously damaged” and “telecommunications have been cut” in some places near the epicenter, according to the public broadcasterciting comments made at a press conference by the authorities of Garze prefecture, which administers Luding.

The tremor was also felt some 200 kilometers further, in the provincial capital Chengdu, whose 21 million inhabitants are currently confined to their homes due to an outbreak of Covid-19. The tremor was “relatively strong”a Chengdu resident told AFP. “Some of my downstairs neighbors said they felt it very clearly”she added.

But since Chengdu is currently in lockdown, “people are not allowed to leave their residential compounds, so many rushed to their yards” downstairs, she said. The China Seismic Network Center reported several aftershocks in the vicinity of the first earthquake.