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| A 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck the northern Chinese city of Tangshan on Sunday (Jul 12), according to the United States Geological Survey. (Photo by=CNA News) |
[아시아뉴스통신=레악카나 기자] A 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck the northern Chinese city of Tangshan on Sunday (Jul 12), according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), reviving memories of a devastating 1976 quake there that was the deadliest in modern times. Sunday's tremor occurred at 6.38am (2238 GMT, Saturday), the USGS said, with the epicentre in a suburban residential district just outside downtown Tangshan, about 200km east of Beijing. China's seismological authority put the magnitude at 5.1 and said it struck at a depth of 10km.
There were no immediate reports of damage from Sunday's tremor, which also caused slight shaking in Beijing. State-run Xinhua news agency said passenger trains through the quake area were suspended pending an inspection of rail infrastructure for any damage. "I'm still a little afraid. After all, it's a 5.1 earthquake," a receptionist at the city's Tangjia Shanhe Hotel told AFP by phone."
I was 12 years old when the Tangshan earthquake happened in 1976." On Jul 28, 1976, Tangshan, then a coal mining city of about one million people, was obliterated by a 7.8-magnitude quake and subsequent 7.1 aftershock about 15 hours later. China says about 240,000 people were killed, although it is widely believed to have downplayed the number for political reasons.
