Beijing: A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake and a series of high-intensity aftershocks Thursday jolted northwest China`s remote and sparsely-populated Xinjiang region that left a trail of destruction but no casualties were reported.
The earthquake struck the province at 5:19 pm (local time). The tremors were strongly felt by residents in Hotan, Yutian and Moyu, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The epicentre`s depth was measured at 12 km at Yutian county, the China Earthquake Centre said.
However, no casualties were reported in the quakes which?struck Yutian County in the prefecture of Hotan.
An ensuing 5.7-magnitude quake hit the same area at 5:24 pm with a depth of 5 km, followed by several quakes below 5-magnitude, the Centre added.
The area is sparsely-populated mostly by ethnic Muslim Uygurs.
Later, reports said due to the tremors, 67 houses were toppled and over 1,000 damaged to varying degrees besides deaths of 185 livestock.
Sections of railways were temporarily suspended in Xinjiang after the earthquake.
The railway administration of Urumqi suspended a section from Hotan to Moyu on the Kahe Railway, which links Kashgar and Hotan, for safety reasons, with 531 passengers stranded at Moyu.
Service resumed in the evening after safety and security checks.
A total of 143 aftershocks had been monitored till 8:00 pm today, with the biggest one measuring at 5.7-magnitude at 5:24 pm in the same area.
President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang ordered concerted effort to guarantee safety and property and issued instructions on relief work soon after the quake.
Local authorities and departments were asked to check disaster situations, conduct emergency management and strengthen seismic monitoring, the Xinhua report said.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Commission for Disaster Reduction also initiated an emergency disaster relief response and dispatched a work team to check the disaster situation and direct rescue work.
Experts from the Centre said the area shares the same plate with Wenchuan in southwest China`s Sichuan Province and Yushu in northwest China`s Qinghai Province.
Wenchuan was devastated by an 8.0-magnitude quake in 2008, and Yushu was hit by a 7.1-magnitude quake in 2010.
