No deaths have been reported in an earthquake that jolted
Baingoin County of Tibet Autonomous Region early Thursday, a
local official told Xinhua over the phone.
The quake, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale, flattened some
houses in the epicenter area but no casualties have been
reported,said Sigyai, head of the Publicity Department of Baingoin
County Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The State Seismological Bureau said the earthquake hit Baingoin
County at 5:05?AM with the epicenter being 31.5 north latitude
and 90.3 east longitude, about 30 km from the county town of
Baingoin.
Sigyai said the quake affected eight of the ten towns in
Baingoin County, of which Jiaqun town suffered the most serious
damages.
Reports from Jiaqun town show that a grain depot and some
buildings in a local school collapsed. And cracks were seen on
thelocal government office building and some residential buildings
of local herdsmen and farmers, Sigyai said.
Sigyai said Baingoin county government had sent rescuers to the
quake-affected areas.
A county of 36,028 people, Baingoin is located in the hinterland
of the highlands in northern Tibet and covers 30,000 square km.
(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2006)