In Photos: 7.0-magnitude quake hits Sichuan

Quake rubbles are pictured by Sina weibo blogger Youlinanshan after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake shocks Lushan county of Ya'an city, Southwest China's Sichuan province, April 20, 2013. [Photo/Sina Weibo]

CHENGDU - A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lushan county of Ya'an city in south China's Sichuan province at 8:02 am Saturday Beijing Time, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

The epicenter, with a depth of 13 km, was monitored at 30.3 degrees north latitude and 103.0 degrees east longitude.

The quake was strongly felt by residents in Sichuan's capital city of Chengdu, which is about 140 kilometers from Ya'an.

A resident in Chengdu, who was on the 13th floor of a building when the quake occurred, said he felt the building shaking for about 20 seconds and he saw tiles fall off nearby buildings.

Luo Xian, a resident in Mianyang city in Sichuan, about 260 kilometers from Ya'an city, said she was sleeping when the quake occurred and the bed was swaying. She also felt several aftershocks.

People in Leshan city of Sichuan province, and neighboring Chongqing municipality also felt the earthquake. In downtown Chongqing, a resident said "I saw the lamps were swaying and water in my fishbowl stirring."

According to users of the twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo, people in a number of cities in Sichuan, including Mianyang, Deyang, Meishan, Yibin, Guangyuan, Luzhou. The tremor was also felt in provinces of Guizhou, Gansu, Shaanxi and Yunnan.

Multiple aftershocks jolted the area after the 7.0 magnitude quake took place, the largest aftershock in magnitude being the 5.1-magnitude one which shook the bordering area of Lushan and Baoxing counties of Sichuan at 8:07 am.

Till the time of release, several aftershocks rated above 4.0-magnitude hit the area, including a M-4.8 quake at 8:06 am, a M-4.6 one at 9:02 am, a M-4.1 one at 8:31 am, and a M-4.1 on at 8:37.