A POWERFUL earthquake killed 24 people, mostly children, and injured some 80 people in sheep farming communities in China's westernmost corner on the frontier with Central Asia, officials - said yesterday.
Terrified inhabitants of Jiashi prefecture in north western Xinjiang cowered in corners of their homes as dozens of aftershocks jolted the area, officials said by telephone.
The earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, struck the region late on Tuesday, rocking Artux, Jiashi and Bachu prefectures and the old Silk Road bazaar town of Kashgar.
The death toll was expected to rise, officials said. Of the dead, seven were adults and the rest children under the age of 18.
The tremor cut telephone links to stricken areas, making it difficult for officials to assess damage.
At least 52 aftershocks had been recorded by yesterday afternoon, including four measuring over 4.0 on the Richter scale.
A Kashgar seismological official said 18 schools collapsed along with 3,599 cattlesheds, killing at least 6,350 animals, mostly sheep. Initial estimates put damage at 151 million yuan (£12 million).
The tremor opened up a crack 4 km long in an earth dam at the end of one of the area's biggest reservoirs.
A seismological official described the earthquake as one the three worst in the last lug years. The previous killer tremors in the region were in 1985 and 1989. A 1985 earthquake killed 67 people in Xinjiang.
. In Beijing, officials hailed the successful end to the first round of live fire military exercises in the Taiwan Strait. Army strategists were quoted as saying Chinese troops could sweep into estranged Taiwan in hours.
As the nine day navy and air force exercises in the south of the strait separating Taiwan from the communist mainland ended as scheduled, a second round that began on Monday at the northern end was stalled in foul weather.
The tests are apparently intended to intimidate Taiwan in the lead up to its first full presidential elections on Saturday.
Meanwhile in Washington, US officials said the Clinton administration has agreed to sell mobile Stinger anti aircraft missiles and other new defensive arms to Taiwan.