The 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit the Luding county in Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan province at 12:52 p.m. on September 5, killing 65 people. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)

A strong earthquake shook a mountainous, steep-sloped area in southwestern China on Monday, and local government agencies said on Tuesday morning that at least 65 people had been killed and more than 250 others were injured. At least 12 people were said to be missing.

According to Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on September 6, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent a telegram extending his sympathy to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang over the losses of human lives and property due to the earthquake on September 5 in China.

The same day, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son also sent condolences to Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The China Earthquake Networks Center initially estimated that the quake, which struck shortly after noon, had a magnitude of 6.6, but it later revised that upward to 6.8. The epicenter was fairly shallow — about 10 miles below the Earth’s surface — and shallow earthquakes often produce more damage than those far underground.

The epicenter was in Luding County, a remote area with many ethnic Tibetans in the southwestern corner of Sichuan Province, close to that province’s borders with Tibet to the west and Yunnan Province to the south. The U.S. Geological Service gave the precise location of the epicenter as several miles east of the Dadu River, which runs through a series of rapids and past small towns in a steep-flanked valley.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences announced on Tuesday morning that one of the dead was a graduate student at the academy’s alpine ecosystems research station, located near the epicenter. Three more people there were injured when the building was damaged, and 14 others were unhurt, the academy said.

State television said that the province had evacuated 50,000 people after the earthquake and sent 6,500 relief workers. A landslide blocked a tributary of the Dadu River, potentially causing water to start backing up behind the fallen debris.

Chinese rescuers carry an injured civilian who was found after the September 5 earthquake - Photo: AFP

The aftermath of a 6.6-magnitude earthquake in Hailuogou, China's southwestern Sichuan province on Sept 5, 2022. PHOTO: AFP

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit the Luding county in Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan province at 12:52 p.m. on September 5, killing 65 people, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre.

As of 7 a.m. on September 6, 12 people were missing and 170 were found injured in Ganzi, including 56 seriously injured.

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