The Death Toll from the 6.8 Magnitude Earthquake in China's Sichuan Reaches 21 People

Illustration. (Unsplash/Jens Aber)

JAKARTA - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 hits that hit Sichuan Province, killing about 21 people, with shocks felt up to the provincial capital Chengdu province further.

Several roads and houses near the epicenter were damaged by landslides, while communication was cut off in at least one area, state television reported.

There was no damage to the dam and hydroelectric power plant reported within 50 km (31 miles) of the epicenter. Despite the damage to the provincial network, it has affected the power of about 40,000 end users.

The epicenter of the earthquake was in Luding City, said the China Earthquake Network Center, in the mountains about 226 km southwest of Chengdu.

Earthquakes usually occur in the southwestern province of Sichuan, especially in the mountains in the west, a tectonically active area along the east boundary of the Qinghai-Tibet highlands.

Laura Luo, who lives in Chengdu, a city of about 21 million people, was on her way to her apartment block when she saw people rushing out of her place of residence panicked, after getting an earthquake warning on their cell phones.

"There were a lot of people who were so scared that they started crying," the international PR consultant told Reuters.

"All the dogs started shaking. It was really very scary," he said, referring to the time the earthquake started.

In Luding, the quake was so strong that it was difficult for some to remain to stand, while cracks appeared in several houses, China News Service reported.

Footage on social media showed lights swinging as people rushed out of buildings into the streets. Four of the seven people who died were in Luding.

As many as 39,000 people live within 20 km of the epicenter and 1.55 million within 100 km, according to state television.

Monday's quake was also felt in the provinces of Yunnan, Shaanxi, and Guizhou hundreds of kilometers away, according to state media.

Chengdu resident Samantha Yang, 23, was in bed taking a nap when the quake struck.

"The building kept shaking, each time more severe than before," Yang said. "Really, this is the scariest since the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake."

It is known, that the earthquake was the largest in Sichuan since August 2017, when one of the 7.0 magnitude earthquakes hit the Aba prefecture.

Meanwhile, the strongest earthquake ever rocked Sichuan was recorded in May 2008, when an 8.0 magnitude earthquake centered in Wenchuan killed nearly 70,000 people and caused severe damage.