Beijing: Earthquake tremors were felt in Xinjiang, the northwestern province of China. According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale occurred at 7:58 am in Wensu County, Aksu region. CENC said that the epicenter of the earthquake was observed at 41.87 degrees north latitude and 79.85 degrees east longitude at a depth of 10 kilometers from the ground. The epicenter of the earthquake was 84 km from the city of Aksu and 670 km from the regional capital Urumqi. According to local officials, no casualties or damage to property has been reported so far.
Immediately after the earthquake was reported, the local fire department sent two of its vehicles with 10 people to the disaster area. Local power grid operations, oil and gas production units, and major petrochemical enterprises were not affected by the quake, officials said. Their production and operations continue as normal. Earlier on February 23, China had reported a 7.3 magnitude earthquake near its border with Tajikistan. China’s state television CCTV had reported that an earthquake of about 7.3 magnitudes occurred at around 8:37 am near the border of Xinjiang region and Tajikistan.
CCTV said that the epicenter of the earthquake was about 82 km from the nearest border of Tajikistan with China. The tremor was so strong that it was also felt in Kashgar and Artax in the western part of Xinjiang region. According to CCTV, the epicenter of the earthquake was 5 km below the earth’s surface. However, there was no loss of life or property due to this. Due to the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Turkey and Syria on February 6, there has been huge devastation. So far more than 50000 deaths have taken place in both countries and the number of injured is in lakhs. A large number of buildings have collapsed, and roads and other infrastructure have been damaged.
According to a Reuters report, there is no place to bury earthquake victims in the city of Kahramanmaras in southeast Turkey. Here temporary tents have been set up on the edge of the cemetery so that the dead bodies can be cleaned before being taken to the freshly dug graves. According to the Telegraph report, people have gathered in large numbers to bury the dead. Cemetery workers say that the number of dead bodies is increasing continuously. Debris from buildings is lying all over the roads, from which the dead bodies of the people are still being extracted. Now the scope of survival of the people buried under the debris is over. That’s why the figure of dead is increasing. Here 1,60,000 buildings, including about 5,20,000 apartments, collapsed due to the strong earthquake.
