Almaty dwellers feel tremors of earthquake in China

ALMATY. KAZINFORM The earthquake that hit the neighboring China shook Almaty city as well, Kazinform reports.

The quake occurred at 5:27 a.m. Astana time.

The epicenter of the earthquake was 490 km from Almaty on the territory of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. According to the European Mediterranean Seismological Center, the magnitude at the epicenter was 6.4 points.

"MSK-6.4 scale magnitude: 4 points in Almaty. According to the City Police Department, no damages were reported there. Kazselezashchita Research Agency says that the quake caused no deformations and cracks of the hydraulic engineering structures. There is no information on any casualties or destruction," the Almaty Emergency Situations Department press service reported.

Recall that on Tuesday, August 8, at 9.19 p.m. local time (7:19 p.m. Astana time) the earthquake hit the Jiuzhaigou County of the Ngawa-Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province at a depth of 15 km. After that, more than 100 aftershocks have been recorded.

The lobby of the hotel "Tiantan", that had nearly 2,000 people, in the area of the Jiuzhaigou National Park collapsed, and 500 people were evacuated. According to the latest information, the death toll in the earthquake has reached 12 people, while 175 were injured.

After a strong earthquake, the authorities of the Ngawa-Tibeto-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in the Chinese province of Sichuan have evacuated 31,500 tourists from the dangerous areas.

According to preliminary information, there are no nationals of Kazakhstan among the victims.