Almaty: A 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck on Tuesday along the mountainous China-Kyrgyzstan border left three people dead and numerous others injured, according to authorities.
In China’s Xinjiang region, roughly 140 kilometers (85 miles) west of Aksu, the major earthquake was detected shortly after 2:00 am (1800 GMT Monday) at a depth of 13 kilometers.
Beijing’s official news agency, Xinhua, reported that local authorities sent a team to the epicenter of the earthquake and that about 800 people were prepared for any significant disaster relief effort.
The earthquake caused three deaths, while five other people sustained injuries, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday evening.
CCTV added that “12,426 people in the disaster area have been relocated” as rescue and relief efforts continue.
The health ministry in Kazakhstan said earlier that 44 people suffering “various” injuries had sought medical help in Almaty, the country’s largest city.
Images posted on social media and by local news outlets showed citizens streaming outside following the quake.
In China’s Akqi County, six people suffered injuries — two of which were “serious” — according to a Weibo post by a Xinjiang government media account.
A total of 47 buildings in the county collapsed, while a further 78 were damaged, the post said.
Two residential houses and livestock sheds collapsed in the area near the epicentre, in rural Wushi County, Xinhua reported, while electricity was temporarily knocked out.
Video circulating on Chinese social media showed household appliances crashing to the floor as wild shaking rocked homes.
More footage shared by state broadcaster CCTV showed firemen entering a damaged building with cracked walls and police helping an injured local.
Local TV channels in the Indian capital New Delhi reported strong tremors in the city, about 1,400 kilometres away.
A resident of Aksu told Xinhua that despite the chilly early morning temperatures, which hovered around -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), people rushed outside for safety during the shaking.
While on a business trip in the city, Cao Yanglong told the state news agency that he felt as though he was “going to be shaken out of bed” while on the 21st floor of a hotel.
An AFP reporter reported that after the earthquake caused walls to tremble and furniture to shift, people also left their homes and sought safety in the streets of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
Bohobek Azhikeev, head of the Kyrgyz Ministry for Emergency Situations, said in a video message that “no casualties or damage have been registered” in the city.
Five villages are located within 20 kilometres of the epicentre, according to Xinhua, and a slew of small aftershocks followed in the area, with magnitudes as high as 5.5.
And on Tuesday morning the Kazakh seismological agency reported two new tremors of magnitude 5.2 and 5.3 around 10:00 am local time (0400 GMT) in the same area.
An AFP correspondent reported that schools in Almaty were closed as a result of the earthquakes.
The earthquake that occurred on Tuesday occurred the day after a landslide in southwest China claimed the lives of at least 31 people and buried several more.
A December earthquake in Gansu province, in the northwest of the country, left thousands of people homeless and claimed 148 lives.
Since 2014, when more than 600 people perished in the southwest Yunnan province, that earthquake has been China’s deadliest.
After the December earthquake, survivors huddled around outdoor fires for warmth, making the relief effort that was initiated even more difficult due to the below-freezing temperatures.
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