Magnitude 5.8 earthquake strikes Uyghur homeland

At 12:14 p.m. (0414 GMT) on Sunday, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake occurred in Akqi County within Uyghur homeland, so-called Xinjiang(Uyghurstan), as reported by the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). The earthquake had a depth of 11 km (6.84 miles) according to CENC.

As of 1:00 p.m., no casualties or structural collapses had been reported, as conveyed by local authorities to China’s state media Xinhua. The sparsely populated areas around the earthquake’s epicenter contributed to the absence of significant impact.

Xinhua also noted that the local main grid and power distribution networks are functioning normally, and there is no disruption to local train operations. It’s worth mentioning that a 7.1-magnitude earthquake had previously struck the Kyrgyzstan-Xinjiang border region on Jan. 23, resulting in at least three casualties.