50 dead in China mudslides, Earthquake shakes Xinjiang

China's Civil Affairs Ministry says mudslides caused by heavy rains have killed 50 and left another 42 missing.
 
The national agency said in an online statement Friday that storms have ravaged 11 provinces and regions  mainly in south China  since June 20 and triggered the deadly mudslides.
 
The ministry says about 440,000 people have been relocated and that tens of thousands of homes are severely damaged.
 
The death toll continues to rise. The state-run China News Service reported Saturday that four people were killed and another 37 missing from a severe mudslide in southwestern China's Sichuan province.
 
Mudslides are common in China's mountainous areas. Critics point to deforestation for soil erosion that has made China prone to mudslides after strong rainfall.
 
A magnitude 6.3 quake struck a remote region of western China, close to the Kazakhstan border early on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, injuring around 10 people.
   
The quake, initially reported as a magnitude 6.5, struck at 5:07 a.m. local time on Saturday (2107 GMT on Friday), and was centred 87 miles (141 km) southwest of the town of Shihezi in Xinjiang, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur people.
  
The official Xinhua news agency said there was strong shaking felt in the regional capital Urumqi which lasted for about 10 seconds, causing some people to rush out of their houses and into the street.
   
In the county nearest the epicentre, the quake threw people form their beds and cut the power, but it would take time to fully assess casualties and damage due to the remote location, Xinhua added.
   
Initial reports said about 10 people were injured in the quake, one seriously, and that most of them were tourists, Xinhua said. Some houses had also collapsed in a village close to the epicentre.
   
"It's a very quiet, remote, mountainous area that is sparsely populated. A the moment we have no report of any casualty or damage but we are watching closely," USGS Geophysicist Chen Shengzao told Reuters by telephone from Golden, Colorado.
  
The USGS said the quake was very shallow, only 11.2 miles (18 km) below the Earth's surface. Chen said that because of its magnitude and very shallow depth, the quake would have been widely felt.
   
A 6.3 quake is capable of causing severe damage.

AP/REUTERS