YUSHU, Qinghai, April 14 (Xinhua) -- At least one person died, many others were buried under the debris after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China's Qinghai Province early on Wednesday, a local official said.
"There are still lots of others who are injured and being treated at local hospitals," Zhuohuaxia, a publicity official of Tibetan ethnic group with the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu, told Xinhua.
The quake struck the Yushu County in Yushu prefecture at 7:49 a.m. with a depth of about 33 km. The epicenter is calculated to be 33.1 north and 96.7 east, the China Earthquake Networks Center reported.
Three aftershocks have been reported so far.
Earlier on 5:39 a.m., a 4.7-magnitude jolted the county with a depth of about 6 km, the center reported.
The epicenter is about 30 km away from the Jiegu Township, the government seat of the Yushu prefecture, and about 800 km away from Xining, the provincial capital.
"We have set up rescue headquarters in Jiegu," said Huang Limin, deputy secretary-general of the Yushu prefecture government.
"Soldiers have been dispatched to save the people buried in the collapsed houses," he said.
Telecommunications were temporarily cut after the quake, but have been restored, he added.
Two rescue teams from Qinghai and Tibet have been dispatched to the quake-hit region, a spokesman with the China Earthquake Administration said.
