Not less than 21 folks had been reported killed in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that shook China’s southwestern province of Sichuan on Monday, triggering landslides and shaking buildings within the provincial capital of Chengdu, whose 21 million residents are already underneath a COVID-19 lockdown.

The temblor struck a mountainous space in Luding county shortly after midday, the China Earthquake Networks Middle mentioned.

Sichuan, which sits on the sting of the Tibetan Plateau the place tectonic plates meet, is often hit by earthquakes. Two quakes in June killed a minimum of 4 folks.

Together with the deaths, authorities reported stones and soil falling from mountainsides, inflicting injury to properties and energy interruptions, state broadcaster CCTV mentioned. One landslide blocked a rural freeway, leaving it strewn with rocks, the Ministry of Emergency Administration mentioned.

Buildings shook in Chengdu, 200 kilometers (125 miles) away from the epicenter. Resident Jiang Danli mentioned she hid underneath a desk for 5 minutes in her thirty first ground house. A lot of her neighbors rushed downstairs, cautious of aftershocks.

“There was a powerful earthquake in June, however it wasn’t very scary. This time I used to be actually scared, as a result of I dwell on a excessive ground and the shaking made me dizzy,” she informed The Related Press.

The earthquake and lockdown comply with a warmth wave and drought that led to water shortages and energy cuts attributable to Sichuan’s reliance on hydropower. That comes on prime of the most recent main lockdown underneath China’s strict “zero-COVID” coverage.

The previous two months in Chengdu “have been bizarre,” Jiang mentioned.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude of 6.6 for Monday’s quake at a comparatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). Preliminary measurements by totally different companies usually differ barely.

China’s deadliest earthquake in recent times was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed practically 90,000 folks in Sichuan. The temblor devastated cities, colleges and rural communities outdoors Chengdu, resulting in a years-long effort to rebuild with extra resistant supplies.