10 killed in earthquake

At least 10 people died and hundreds of homes collapsed when a strong earthquake rumbled through western China’s mountainous Xinjiang region near the border with Kazakhstan today.

More than 40 people were injured and 700 houses fell, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The 6.1-magnitude quake, in the sparsely populated Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, hit at 9.38 am (1.38am Irish time) and the quake was felt many miles away.

The Russian news agency ITAR-Tass said the tremor was felt in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, about 100 miles west. It said there were no damage or injuries there.

At least 10 people were confirmed dead in Xinjiang, Xinhua said.

“Houses that were built in the 1960s and 1970s all collapsed,” said an official at the Xinjiang Seismological Bureau.

The US Geological Service’s National Earthquake Information Centre in Colorado confirmed the tremor but said it was slightly less strong – magnitude 5.7.

Rescue teams were en route to the area, Xinhua said, and investigators for the State Seismological Bureau were also on the way.

Xinjiang, a seismically active area, was the site of the most lethal quake in China this year – a magnitude-6.8 earthquake on February 24 that killed 268 people.