BEIJING—Two earthquakes killed at least four people and damaged houses in southwestern China on Wednesday, authorities and state media said.
Fourteen others were injured, at least one seriously, state broadcaster CCTV said in an online report. All of the dead and injured were in Baoxing county in Sichuan province.
The actual number of casualties from such events may be much higher. The actual number of casualties is difficult to verify, as the Chinese regime routinely suppresses or alters information.
A magnitude 6.1 quake struck at a depth of 17 kilometers (10 miles) in Ya’an city, about 110 kilometers (65 miles) southwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, the China Earthquake Network Center said. A magnitude 4.5 quake, also in Ya’an, followed three minutes later, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said.
The Sichuan fire department said some houses were damaged and more than 1,400 rescuers were headed to the area. The Southwest Railway Authority said some sections of track were closed, causing delays to passenger trains.
Provincial officials claimed on state-run media that the Ya’an city earthquake was an aftershock of a magnitude 7.0 quake in 2013 that killed at least 196 people.