Authorities in China’s Sichuan province reported that a 6.8-magnitude earthquake that shook Luding on Monday killed at least seven people. According to the information office of the people’s administration of the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, damage to roads, telecommunications, and homes is being assessed. According to the Xinhua news agency, the prefecture has sent out over 600 emergency workers, 300 of whom have already arrived at the epicentre area to assist with rescue operations. They are also repairing roads and sending drones to survey earthquake damage.
The second-highest degree of emergency response has been activated throughout the province in response to the earthquake. The China Earthquake Networks Centre reported that the epicentre was being watched at 29.59 degrees north latitude and 102.08 degrees east longitude, at a depth of 16 km (CENC). The epicentre location, which is 39 kilometres from Luding, the county seat, is surrounded by a number of communities within a 5-kilometer radius. Despite being 226 kilometres from the epicentre, Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, experienced the tremor.
