Earthquake hits Chinese region of Xinjiang: seismologists
Originally published by Hindustan Times,01 january 2011
A moderate quake with a magnitude of 5.2 hit the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang on Saturday, seismologists said.
The quake struck just before 10:00 am (0200 GMT) at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles) with its epicentre 68 kilometres west of Kashi, the US Geological Survey said.
China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua, said there were no early reports of casualties.
Xinjiang is a vast mountainous region in the north-west of China, covering around a sixth of the country. Around 20 million people live there, eight million of them Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim grouping.