Two powerful earthquakes with a 6.5 magnitude rock China

BEIJING: China was today rocked by two powerful quakes-- one in Tibet, close to Indian and Nepalese borders and another in Yunnan province bordering Myanmar.

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake jolted Zhaotong city in southwest China's Yunnan Province at 4:30 pm (Beijing time) on Sunday, said the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). The epicentre was monitored at a depth of 12 kilometres, according to the CENC, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Zhaotong is about 300 kms from Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan. In September 2012, a 5.7-magnitude caused more than 80 deaths and injured more than 800 people. In 1974, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in the same place caused about 1,500 death.

Earlier a 5.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Xigatze Prefecture in Tibet close to Indian and Nepalese borders. Shigatse is located close to Arunachal Pradesh border region. The epicentre was monitored at a depth of 10 km, the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) said. Details of the damage caused by the twin quakes are awaited. The quake at Yunnan created panic among the people in urban centres.

"I felt a strong jolt on my fifth-floor home and some small objects in my home fell off the shelves," said a resident in the county seat of Ludian.

Most people rushed out of buildings to the streets. Electricity was cut, telecommunications services were affected and it was hard to reach people in Ludian by mobile phone, the resident said.

Another resident said it felt like "sailing a boat" when he was driving a car in the tremor. The Yunnan provincial earthquake administration has sent a 30-member working team to the epicenter and it will soon held a meeting to evaluate the situations.