ALBAWABA - At least 21 people were reportedly injured in a 5.4 magnitude earthquake that hit Pingyuan County in eastern China’s Shandong province early on Sunday morning.
Videos posted to social media showed shaky light fixtures, trembling ground, and people fleeing their homes. One tape showed people walking around with damaged bricks scattered across the streets.
China Earthquake Networks Center, a division of the China Earthquake Administration, reported that the quake occurred at 2:33 a.m. local time with an epicenter that was 10 kilometers deep.
One resident of Shandong's neighboring Hebei province wrote on the social networking site Weibo, "The tremor was so strong... during the quake, my head was shaking on the pillow, I thought I was having a nightmare".
"The closer to the surface the earthquake is, the stronger you are going to feel it," said Abreu Paris, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center.
The official China News Service (CCTV) reported that train lines were being examined for any potential damage. According to CCTV, some locations had their gas service cut off because to pipe damage.
According to the municipal government website, there are around 5.6 million people living in Dezhou and the neighborhood that is under its administration. About 800 kilometers from the epicenter, the earthquake was felt in Shanghai as well as the cities of Beijing and Tianjin.
According to state news agency Xinhua, China's Ministry of Emergency Management activated a level four emergency response and sent a team to the province of Shandong to oversee the rescue operations.
CCTV footage showed first aid tents that were set up on a school athletic field surrounded by seemingly unharmed buildings as rescue workers in red uniforms marched past them.
According to CCTV, "only specific old dirt buildings that were uninhabited have collapsed," as evidenced by images of mounds of crumbling bricks between unharmed buildings and portions of an intact house's outside wall.
