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At least 21 dead after 6.8 magnitude earthquake shakes Southwest China

Violent tremors have caused landslides, damage to homes and power interruptions

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A strong earthquake struck China's Sichuan province on Monday afternoon. The quake was the strongest to hit the region since 2017, killing at least 21 people and shaking the provincial capital of Chengdu and other instant provinces.

Some roads and homes near the epicentre were damaged by landslides, while communications were down in at least oe area, state television reported.

No damage to dams and hydropower stations within 50km

The 6.8 magnitude earthquake jolted the mountainous Luding county in Sichuan province at 12:52 pm, Xinhua news agency reported.

The US Geological Survey pegged the quake at a magnitude of 6.6 and added that it was centred at a depth of 10km. Preliminary measurements by different agencies often differ slightly. Shallower quakes tend to cause more damage.

Sichuan, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan plateau where tectonic plates meet, is regularly hit by earthquakes. Two quakes in June killed at least four people.

China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan. It devastated towns, schools and rural communities outside the provincial capital of Chengdu, leading to a years-long effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.

The epicentre of the most recent quake is in a mountainous area about 200km (125 miles) southwest of Chengdu.

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