BEIJING - At least 14 people were injured and hundreds of buildings destroyed when two large earthquakes just five hours apart rocked China's north western Xinjiang region yesterday, local officials said.
It felt very strong," an official of the Jiashi seismological bureau said by telephone. The ground seemed to move from left to right for about one minute." The first earthquake, measuring 6.3 on the open ended Richter scale, struck the town of Jiashi at 7.46 a.m. yesterday. That was followed by a stronger tremor of magnitude 6.4 at 12.36 pm.
The Jiashi district has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks since January as well as several other earthquakes, causing widespread damage. On March 20, a tremor measuring 6.9 hit the town, killing 24 people and injuring 40.