The China Earthquake Networks Centre said that the epicentre of the earthquake was located at the town of Luding at a depth of 16 kilometers, which is 180 km southwest of Sichuan's capital Chengdu.
This earthquake is considered as the most powerful since 2013 in Sichuan, as Chengdu, the provincial capital, and Xian and Changsha felt the shaking.
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Within just minutes, an aftershock of magnitude 4.2 struck Yaan which is about 100 kms southwest of Chengdu.
Earlier in April 2013, a magnitude 7.0 quake struck Yaan that killed over 100 people and injuring thousands. Prior to that, in May 2008, an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 occurred in Wenchuan killed almost 70,000 people and caused extensive damage in Sichuan.
With reports from Reuters.
