Earthquake Hits Xinjiang In China, Two Killed

By Niam Seet Wei BEIJING, July 3 (Bernama) -- A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck China's far western Xinjiang Hotan Prefecture on Friday morning, killing two people, Xinhua news agency reported. The quake hit Pishan County at 9.07 am (same time in Malaysia), with the epicentre monitored at 37.6 degrees north latitude and 78.2 degrees east longitude, it said. The quake struck at a depth of 10km, the state-run news agency quoted the China Earthquake Networks Centre as saying. Shortly after the quake, several aftershocks measuring between 3.0 and 4.6 magnitude rocked the area, it said. Pishan is located at the southernmost part of Xinjiang, some 1,800km away from Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital, and covers an area of 39,700 sq km. It has a population of 258,000, and most of the people are from the Uyghur ethnic minority. -- BERNAMA