BEIJING — Chinese authorities say a strong earthquake in a western province has killed at least 67 people. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured a magnitude of 6.9.
The China Earthquake Administration announced the initial death toll in a brief statement on its Web site, saying that Wednesday's quake had caused many houses to collapse.
Rescue efforts were hindered by telecommunications problems, with phone lines down.
BEIJING (AP) — A series of strong earthquakes struck China's western Qinghai province Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the remote rural area, though witnesses described houses quickly crumbling.
The USGS reported on its Web site that a magnitude 6.9 temblor struck an area in southern Qinghai, near Tibet, on Wednesday morning and was followed by two quakes in the same region.
The quake hit the county of Yushu, a Tibetan area in Qinghai, the official Xinhua News Agency cited the China Earthquake Networks Center as saying. The Chinese center measured the quake's magnitude at 7.1. A local government Web site put the county's population in 2005 at 89,300, a community of mostly herders and farmers.
The quake sent residents fleeing as it toppled many houses made of mud and wood, said Gasong Nima, the Yushu county television station's deputy head of news, speaking by phone with state broadcaster CCTV.
"In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible earthquake," the witness said. "In a small park, there is a Buddhist tower and the top of the tower fell off.
"Everybody is out on the streets, standing in front of their houses, trying to find their family members," he said, adding that school buildings had not collapsed but students had been evacuated and were assembled in outdoor playgrounds.
The epicenter of the first quake was located 235 miles (380 kilometers) south-southeast of Golmud, a large city in Qinghai, at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), the USGS said.
Ten minutes later, the area was hit by a magnitude 5.3 quake, which was followed after two minutes by a temblor measuring 5.2, according to the U.S. agency. Both the subsequent earthquakes were measured at a depth of 6 miles (10 kilometers).
Calls to the local Communist Party office and the government of Yushu county and the Qinghai provincial seismological bureau rang unanswered.
In 2008, a magnitude-7.9 quake in Sichuan province left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.
