Earlier, authorities had reported seven deaths in Luding County and 14 more in neighboring Shimian County to the south. Three of the dead were workers in the Hailuogou Scenic Area, a glacier and forest nature reserve. The quake triggered landslides and shook buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, whose 21 million residents are already under lockdown due to COVID-19. The earthquake struck a mountainous area in Luding County shortly after noon on Monday, the China Earthquake Network Center said. Sichuan, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau where the tectonic plates meet, is regularly hit by earthquakes. Two earthquakes in June killed at least four people.
Rescue crews on scene
Authorities reported landslides and damage to homes and power outages, state broadcaster CCTV reported. A landslide blocked a rural highway, leaving it strewn with rocks, the Ministry of Emergency Management said. “A 300-member rescue team has arrived in the earthquake zone to carry out rescue operations,” China’s ASEAN ambassador Deng Shijun said on Twitter. 7 people killed after 6.8 magnitude attack pic.twitter.com/tGEF48EOxO —@China2ASEAN Chengdu resident Jiang Danli said she hid under a desk for five minutes in her 31st-floor apartment while many of her neighbors ran downstairs. “There was a strong earthquake in June, but it wasn’t too scary. This time I was really scared because I live on a high floor and the shaking made me dizzy,” he told The Associated Press. The earthquake and lockdown follow a heat wave and drought that has led to water shortages and power outages due to Sichuan’s reliance on hydropower. The last two months in Chengdu “have been strange,” Jiang said. This photo shows the aftermath of the earthquake in Hailuogou in southwest China’s Sichuan province on Monday. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) The US Geological Survey registered a magnitude of 6.6 for Monday’s earthquake at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers. Preliminary measurements from different agencies often differ slightly. China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan. The quake destroyed towns, schools and rural communities outside Chengdu, prompting a years-long effort to rebuild with more durable materials.
