House-shaking… 7-magnitude earthquake hits the China-Kyrgyzstan border
An earthquake with a magnitude of seven struck along the border between China and Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, noting the possibility of widespread damage.
Television channels in the Indian capital, New Delhi, reported strong earthquakes in the city, located about 1400 kilometers from the earthquake’s epicenter.
The earthquake occurred around 2:00 local time (18:00 UTC on Monday) at a depth of 27 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, specifically in the Xinjiang region of China, about 140 kilometers west of the city of Aksu.
Shortly after, three more earthquakes were recorded in the region with magnitudes of 5.5, 5.1, and 5.0.
The U.S. Geological Survey mentioned the possibility of casualties, although immediate reports of this were not received in the mountainous and rural area affected by the earthquake.
The institute stated in its report, “Damage is likely to be severe, and the disaster is likely to be widespread.”
Residents of areas in both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, located in Central Asia, felt the earthquake, without immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The Minister of Emergency Situations in Kyrgyzstan, Boobek Ajikeev, said in a video that “no injuries or damages have been reported so far,” urging residents not to panic.
He explained that residents of some areas in the Issyk-Kul province in the east of the country felt “very strong” tremors.
In Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, residents fled their homes to the streets, according to a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
In Kazakhstan, scenes shared on social media and local media showed residents of Almaty, the country’s largest city, fleeing to the streets following the earthquake.
This earthquake occurred on Tuesday, a day after a landslide in southwest China buried dozens and killed at least eight.
A quake struck northwest China in December last year, killing 148 people and displacing thousands in Gansu province, marking the highest death toll in China since 2014, when over 600 people died in Yunnan province in the southwest of the country.
