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Quake of Magnitude 6.2 Strikes China's Xinjiang


Xinjiang province, China
Xinjiang province, China

An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 hit China's far western region of Xinjiang on Thursday, the China Earthquake Administration said, with tremors shaking buildings near the epicenter about 100 km (60 miles) west of the regional capital of Urumqi.

There were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties from the quake, which struck at a depth of 6 km (4 miles).

A police office in Hutubi county where the quake struck declined to give details.

A receptionist at a hotel about 2 km (a mile) from the epicenter, reached by Reuters, said the tremors were intense though no buildings had collapsed.

Images posted on the microblog of the state-run China Earthquake Networks Center showed goods had fallen off shelves at a supermarket and students lined up in rows on a sports field near their school.

The official Xinhua news agency said Urumqi railway authorities suspended services on some lines for safety checks. Hutubi, a county of about 200,000 people, according to census figures, has a largely ethnic Han population with significant numbers of members of minorities, including from the Hui and Uighur Muslim groups.

Xinjiang, China's largest region, includes large stretches of desert and mountains, and is a major oil, gas and cotton producer. It is also a hub for trade with neighboring Central Asia.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported the quake as magnitude 6.1 and at a depth of 55 km.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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