Around 1,500 residents of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China were rattled by a 5.0-magnitude earthquake on Saturday. The tremor damaged homes but did not result in casualties.

Xinhua.net reports that the temblor struck at 2:50 p.m. on Saturday (Beijing time), with the epicenter at 40.2 degrees north latitude and 77.3 degrees east longtitude. The local depth was at 10 kilometers, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.

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The epicenter is at the township of Karajol in the city of Atux, Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilsu found at the west end of the province of Xinjiang.

Fifty-one homes were damaged, and the 1,508 affected residents moved to homes of their relatives, local government sites and clinics, said Atux Mayor Ababaken Mametmin. He added that stoves, tents and other relief goods were sent to the earthquake victims.

Kizilsu has 20 villages which is about 30 kilometers from the epicenter. Most of the damaged were old homes. The prefecture has more than 17,000 residents who live in an area of 8,452 square kilometers. Since most of them are herdsmen who live far from one another, rescue and counting tasks of the local government became more difficult.

The Saturday quake is the third to hit Xinjiang since 2009. On June 30, 2012, a magnitude 6.3 tremor rocked the province, while on January 25, 2009, a similar magnitude-5 temblor shook the place. In the three quakes, there were no casualties.

TagsChina earthquake, Xinjiang