A 6.0-magnitude earthquake rattled Changning County of Yibin City in southwest China's Sichuan Province, at 10:55 p.m. Monday (Beijing Time), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).
The epicenter, with a depth of 16 km, was monitored at 28.34 degrees north latitude and 104.90 degrees east longitude, the CENC said in a formal report.
Local residents in Yibin told Xinhua that the quake was quite strong, and that a few tremors were felt in the ensuing half an hour.
"I was resting in my house when the quake struck," said Chen Hongxia, who lives on the 16th floor of a residential building in Changning County. "The chandelier and the furniture in the house were shaking very badly, and my family first hid in the toilet, then rushed to the outside."
Chen said that many of her neighbors rushed to the ground for shelter.
Hu Yukun, also a Changning resident, said that the quake was quite strong, and that "the ground kept shaking for about a minute."
Local policeman He Zexi said that he felt the electric fan in his house shaking at first, before the chandelier began to shake.
"It lasted about 30 seconds," He said.
According to the county government, many teams have been sent out to see if there were any casualties.
The quake was felt strongly in the major districts of neighboring Chongqing Municipality, which is not too far from the epicenter, and a few residential houses were damaged, although no casualties have been reported, according to the Chongqing Municipal Emergency Management Bureau.
Changning is a little more than 300 km from the provincial capital Chengdu and about 240 km from Chongqing.
At 11:36 p.m. Monday, a 5.1-magnitude earthquake rocked Gongxian County, also of Yibin City, the CENC said.
The epicenter, with a depth of 16 km, was monitored at 28.43 degrees north latitude and 104.77 degrees east longitude.
