Moderate quake shakes China’s northwest, no injuries immediately reported

Moderate quake rattles China’s northwest

BEIJING — Chinese seismological authorities say a moderate earthquake registering a magnitude of 5.5 Sunday has struck China’s far western Xinjiang region. No injuries were immediately reported.

An official from the Xinjiang seismological bureau says the quake’s epicenter was northwest of the thinly populated county of Akqi, near the border with Kyrgyzstan.

He said authorities were assessing the damage caused by the temblor that struck at noon local time (0400h GMT). The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 5.2 quake in Kyrgyzstan, 110 miles (177 kilometers) west of the Chinese city of Aksu in Xinjiang.

China’s worst earthquake in recent years hit the southwestern province of Sichuan last May. The magnitude 7.9 quake left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.