At least seven people were killed in a 6.8-magnitude earthquake that jolted Luding county in China's Sichuan province on Monday, authorities said.Damage to roads, telecommunications and houses is being checked, said the information office of the people's government of the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
The prefecture has dispatched over 600 rescue workers and 300 have arrived at the epicentre area to join the rescue efforts, repairing roads and sending drones to assess quake damage, reports Xinhua news agency.
The province has activated the second-highest level of emergency response for the earthquake.The epicentre was monitored at 29.59 degrees north latitude and 102.08 degrees east longitude, at a depth of 16 km, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC).
There are several villages within the 5-km range around the epicentre area, which is 39 km from the county seat of Luding.The tremor was felt in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, which is 226 km away from the quake site.