Two earthquakes measuring 6 and 5.8 on the Richter scale again shook Sichuan province in southwestern China on Thursday. There are no reports of deaths, state media said.
The first earthquake, of 5.8 degrees, occurred at 00:03 local time (5:30 p.m. on Thursday, in Lisbon) and was followed just an hour later by another of 6 degrees, both in the autonomous prefecture of Aba, according to the Center of the China Earthquake Network.
The epicenter, 13 kilometers deep, was located at 32.25 degrees north latitude and 101.82 degrees east longitude, according to the same source.
Authorities dispatched rescue teams, including 750 firefighters, and activated the regional level 3 emergency response and the national level 4 response, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
So far no information on material damage has been released.
Last week, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake in Lushan village in the same province left four dead and 14 injured. In 2013, the same town suffered a magnitude 7 earthquake that left 193 dead and 12,200 injured.
The southwestern regions of China are earthquake-prone areas due to the friction of the Asian and Indian tectonic plates. Thousands of people have died in these regions due to earthquakes in recent decades.
In May 2008, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake killed an estimated 87,000 people in the same province.
Source: Observadora
