A visitor at the memorial site for the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, which killed around 80,000 people.
(dpa) A 6.1 magnitude earthquake has struck southwest China, triggering landslides. The epicenter was in Lushan County near Ya’an City in Sichuan Province, the Chinese earthquake agency reported in Beijing on Wednesday. According to the first unconfirmed reports in the short message service Weibo, there was damage.
Videos that could not be verified said a landslide damaged a cement factory, cars and homes. The authorities launched an emergency response plan and sent personnel to the earthquake area. People’s Liberation Army forces were also sent, eyewitnesses said.
A devastating magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Sichuan province in 2008, killing around 80,000 people. Sichuan lies at the edge of the thrust zone of the Indian tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate. Because of plate shifts, the province is particularly at risk of earthquakes.