BEIJING, Sept 16, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - Two people were killed and dozens
injured when a shallow earthquake struck southwestern China in the early
hours of Thursday, triggering the second-highest level of emergency response
by rescuers in Sichuan province.

  The quake struck Luxian county before dawn on Thursday around 120
kilometres southwest of the sprawling megacity of Chongqing, which along with
its surrounding area is home to around 30 million people.

  The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 5.4 but the
China Earthquake Networks Centre measured it at magnitude 6.0. Both put it at
a shallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles).

  National earthquake authorities said the seismic event left "two dead,
three seriously injured and 57 slightly injured."

  Dozens of houses in Luxian had collapsed and many others were damaged,
while communications to tens of thousands of people had been disrupted,
authorities said.

  Live footage from Luxian by state broadcaster CCTV showed workers climbing
up ladders in pouring rain to remove hazardous debris hanging off buildings,
including half-broken panes of glass.

  Another video from the Sichuan Daily showed students evacuating their
dormitories in the dark, clutching umbrellas and wearing backpacks.

  Authorities downplayed the immediate threat of a larger aftershock.

  "It is unlikely there will be a larger earthquake in the area in the near
future, but aftershocks will continue for some time," Du Bin, deputy chief of
the Sichuan Earthquake Administration, told reporters.

  State-run CGTN confirmed the death toll, sharing security camera footage
showing TVs and refrigerators shaking on the walls of houses as the quake
struck, as ornaments smashed onto floors and cracks ran through buildings.

  Bricks were strewn across roads and trees felled in some areas as
firefighters clawed through the rubble of collapsed houses, the images
showed.

  Residents were urged to stay outside of their homes, state media reported,
although images showed there was little sense of wider panic by residents in
an area of high seismic activity.

  The USGS said that "significant damage is likely and the disaster is
potentially widespread", in a preliminary assessment.

  Multiple power lines had been disrupted and 62,000 households were hit by
power cuts after the earthquake, the local government in Sichuan said in a
Weibo post.

  Traffic on highways passing through the area has been rerouted to make way
for emergency vehicles and to avoid damaged roads, the local government said.

  China is regularly hit by earthquakes, especially in its mountainous
western and southwestern regions.

  A powerful 7.9-magnitude quake in Sichuan province in 2008 left 87,000
people dead or missing.

  Among them were thousands of children, killed when poorly constructed
school buildings collapsed, but the government failed to release an exact
number of dead as the issue took on a political dimension.

  Police detained activists who attempted to count the number of children who
had died and mark the buildings that collapsed amid suspicions of poor
construction.

  Thursday's quake comes months after a series of strong earthquakes shook
sparsely populated areas in northwest and southwest China in May, killing at
least two people and injuring dozens.