Temblor Reportedly Kills 94 in China
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BEIJING — An earthquake struck China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang today, killing 94 people, injuring more than 200 and flattening more than 1,000 structures, local officials said.
The magnitude 6.8 quake struck an area of Xinjiang near China’s mountainous border with Kyrgyzstan at 10:03 a.m., according to the officials.
“The death toll might increase,” said Zhang Yong, director of disaster prevention for the Xinjiang Seismology Bureau. He spoke by telephone from the region’s capital, Urumqi.
More than 1,000 houses and school buildings collapsed in one village in Bachu County, where the earthquake was centered, the official New China News Agency reported.
The area is about 1,750 miles west of Beijing.
Earthquakes are common in Xinjiang, but they usually cause little damage because the area is so sparsely populated.
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