Hundreds of people were killed or injured when a strong earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday, local officials said, five years after a massive quake devastated the region.
The shallow earthquake struck close to the city of Ya'an on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau just after 8:00 am (0000 GMT), setting off landslides, destroying buildings and triggering a major rescue operation.
Four hours after the quake struck, the death toll stood at 56, the Xinhua news agency said, quoting the provincial earthquake relief headquarters.
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CCTV News had earlier reported 72 killed but revised that down to 47, with 600 injured, citing the Sichuan emergency authorities.
The quake sent panicked residents in cities hundreds of kilometres away fleeing into the streets, some of them still in their slippers and pyjamas.
Local seismologists registered the quake at magnitude 7.0 while the US Geological Survey gave it as 6.6 at a depth of 12 kilometres (seven miles). It was followed by several aftershocks.
"The earthquake in Ya'an, Lushan, has injured or killed hundreds of people," the Sichuan earthquake bureau said.
Local authorities, who were heavily criticised after Sichuan's 2008 quake left 87,000 people missing or dead, swiftly mobilised and President Xi Jinping ordered all out efforts to minimise casualties, Xinhua said.
Premier Li Keqiang was flying to Ya'an, the People's Daily website said.
Rescue workers heading for the quake zone were struggling to clear roads that had been blocked by debris, CCTV reported.
"There are mountains on all sides, it is very easy to trigger mudslides and very dangerous," one user wrote on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter.
A Sina Weibo user posted a photo purportedly showing a badly damaged kindergarten in Lushan, its dark red stone slabs lying on the ground beside a row of trees. The authenticity of the photo could not be verified.
"Hang in there Ya'an!" the user wrote.
The tremors were felt as far as the megacity of Chongqing, home to around 30 million people, several hundred kilometres to the east, with Xinhua showing images of residents outside their apartment buildings after fleeing the shaking.
Xinhua said 2,000 troops were being dispatched to the area, with two helicopters from the Chengdu Military Area Command sent to assess developments on the ground.
The military set up a quake relief and rescue headquarters and medical relief team for the quake-hit region.
Xinhua quoted a resident in the provincial capital Chengdu, who was on the 13th floor when the quake hit, as saying he felt the shaking for about 20 seconds and saw tiles fall off nearby buildings.
City residents ran onto the street to get away from high rises, making phone calls and crying, a Sichuan government website reported.
A few had even packed bags in case they needed to take shelter elsewhere.
In a photo published online by Xinhua, staff at a restaurant in Shifang city near the provincial capital Chengdu showed cracks that appeared in the wall after the quake struck.
In downtown Chongqing, Xinhua quoted a resident as saying: "I saw the lamps were swaying and water in my fishbowl stirring."
Weibo users said they felt the quake in a number of surrounding cities.
In 2008 the province saw one of the country's worst earthquakes in decades.
That quake, which struck west-northwest of Chengdu, generated an outpouring of support, with volunteers rushing to the scene to offer aid and then-premier Wen Jiabao also visiting.
The disaster flattened swathes of the province along with parts of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu.
But there was public anger after the discovery that many schools fell while other buildings did not, creating suspicion of corruption and corner-cutting in construction.
The deaths of the children became a sensitive and taboo subject in the heavily controlled domestic media and social media websites.
Earthquakes frequently strike the country's southwest, with twin tremors in neighbouring Yunnan province last September triggering landslides that left at least 80 people dead.
Houses were toppled and people slept outdoors for fear of aftershocks, as emergency workers struggled to clear mountain roads blocked by the landslides to reach survivors.
A 5.5-magnitude earthquake in Yunnan last June killed four people and injured more than 100. Another 5.4 tremor the year before near the border with Myanmar left 25 people dead and injured 250.
CHINA EARTHQUAKE TIMELINE
A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday, killing at least 56 people and injuring hundreds. Here is a list of other deadly quakes in the country:
September 7, 2012: Two earthquakes strike the southwestern province of Yunnan, killing at least 81 people.
June 24, 2012: An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 hits a mountainous area on the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, killing at least four people and injuring more than 100.
March 10, 2011: A quake with a 5.4 magnitude strikes a remote area of southwest China bordering with Myanmar, killing 25 and injuring 250.
April 14, 2010: A quake with a magnitude of 6.9 kills about 2,700 people and injures another 12,000 in the northwestern province of Qinghai.
August 30, 2008. Forty people die after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Panzhihua city, Sichuan province.
May 12, 2008: A 8.0-magnitude quake strikes Sichuan, leaving nearly 87,000 dead or missing. Another 4.45 million are injured in the worst quake disaster to hit China in more than three decades.
July 23, 2006: 22 people are killed and 106 injured as an earthquake measuring 5.1 hits Yunnan. More than 6,000 homes are destroyed and 38,000 buildings damaged across 13 municipalities.
February 24, 2003: A violent earthquake measuring 6.8 takes 268 lives in the far-western region of Xinjiang and causes significant damage.
January 10, 1998: Forty-seven people are killed and 9,000 injured in a quake measuring 6.2 that in the northern province of Hebei.
February 3, 1996: A quake measuring 7.0 near the city of Lijiang in Yunnan kills 228 people and seriously injures 3,700.
October 24, 1995: An earthquake measuring 6.5 kills 52 in Yunnan.
April 26, 1990: A 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Qinghai kills 126.
August 23, 1985: An earthquake measuring 7.4 in Xinjiang kills 67.
July 28, 1976: The industrial city of Tangshan, 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of Beijing, is levelled by an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale (8.2 according to sources outside China). Beijing puts the official death toll at 242,000, with 164,000 seriously injured, although Western sources say the toll could be much higher.
February 4, 1975: A quake measuring 7.3 in the northeastern province of Liaoning claims 1,300 lives.
May 11, 1974: Ten thousand die in Sichuan and Yunnan after an earthquake of 7.1 magnitude.
January 5, 1970: An earthquake measuring 7.8 in Yunnan leaves 15,621 dead.
December 26, 1932: An 7.6-magnitude earthquake kills 70,000 people in the northwestern province of Gansu.
May 23, 1927: Forty-one thousand people die in Gansu in an earthquake measuring 8.0.
December 16, 1920: An earthquake measuring 8.5 in Gansu kills 230,000 people.
