Ten injured in two moderate quakes in China

Beijing: At least ten people were injured when two moderate earthquakes shook northeast China`s Jilin Province on Thursday in a span of seven minutes, damaging over 4,100 homes, local officials said. The first quake that hit the Songyuan city at 11:03 am (13:33 IST) was of 5.5-magnitude with its epicenter at a depth of eight km, the China Earthquake Networks Center said. The area was hit by another quake of 5.0 magnitude at a depth of six km at 11:10 am. The epicenter was Dongbaiyinhua Village, where telecommunications have been cut off, an official from Qian Gorlos Mongol Autonomous County said. The seriously injured were rushed to local hospitals. The earthquakes were felt in most parts of Jilin Province and some cities in the neighbouring Heilongjiang Province. No deaths have been reported so far. So far, over 4,100 homes had been damaged with another 55 destroyed in Chaganhua Town. Local authorities have relocated about 14,400 residents there. Economic losses were estimated to be about 130 million yuan (about USD 21.33 million), state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The Qian Gorlos Mongol Autonomous County government said all kindergartens and schools will be closed from this afternoon till tomorrow. A 5.3-magnitude earthquake struck Hunchun city in the same province yesterday though no casualties or damage were reported. The Jilin provincial government has allotted 5,00,000 yuan in disaster relief fund to the quake-hit region. Relief teams have been sent to the region, officials said.