Strongest quake in a decade strikes Shandong

A shallow 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck eastern China in the early hours of yesterday, the US Geological Survey said, with state media reporting at least 21 people injured and dozens of buildings collapsed.

The quake, which struck at 2.33am, hit 26 kilometers south of the city of Dezhou in Shandong province, at a depth of 10kms, the USGS said.

It was the strongest to hit the province in more than a decade, state-run tabloid the Global Times said.

The quake was felt as far away as Beijing and Tianjin, as well as in Shanghai, about 800kms from the epicenter.

Videos on social media show shaking light fixtures, trembling ground and people evacuating their buildings.

"The tremor was so strong... during the earthquake my head was shaking on the pillow, I thought I was having a nightmare," one person posted on Weibo from Shandong's neighboring Hebei province.

State broadcaster CCTV said there were at least 21 injured and that 126 houses or other buildings had "collapsed" from the earthquake, which was followed by 52 aftershocks.

There were cracked walls and bricks strewn on the ground near the epicenter of the quake in Shandong's rural and sparsely populated Pingyuan county, but the damage appeared relatively minor.

Locals helped with the cleanup operation in one village, with a group of four elderly women putting a low brick wall back together outside an overgrown yard.

Deng Hongqiang, 55, who lives outside the village but came back to prop up the wall on his uninhabited property, said he had been jolted awake by the quake. His old house "would have to be demolished and rebuilt," he said.

China's Ministry of Emergency Management has launched a level-four emergency response and sent a team to Shandong province to lead the rescue work, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Footage from CCTV showed rescue personnel in red uniforms marching past first-aid tents that had been set up on a school athletics field surrounded by seemingly undamaged buildings.

Earthquakes are not uncommon in China but it is rare for them to hit the eastern part of the country, where most of the population and big cities are located.

Meanwhile, six people are dead and four are missing after torrential rain hit northeastern Jilin province, state media reported yesterday, the latest fatalities from more than a week of weather-related disasters across the country.

China has been hit with record heavy rains in recent weeks, with Beijing saying Friday that natural disasters had caused 147 deaths or disappearances last month.

Heavy rains in the area had now "basically ended," Xinhua said, with almost 19,000 evacuated and 21 "temporary relocation facilities" set up.

Torrential rain brought on in the aftermath of Storm Doksuri, which hit mainland China as a typhoon, is the most severe recorded in 140 years, when records began.

Officials said Saturday that at least 10 people had been killed in floods in a city in Hebei province, where more than 1.5 million people have been evacuated.

A red alert remained in force in Beijing as of midday yesterday due to "geological risks" such as landslides linked to the bad weather.