By Orange Wang

Copyright scmp

At least seven people have been injured and more than 110 dwellings damaged after a 5.6 magnitude earthquake rattled the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu on Saturday morning.
No fatalities have been identified in the first round of inspection by local rescue teams, who said eight houses had collapsed, according to the state broadcaster CCTV, adding that all of those injured had been hospitalised.
Chinese central authorities activated the level-four national earthquake contingency response – the lowest in its four-tier system – and deployed a working group to the quake zone after the event, according to a statement from the country’s emergency management ministry.
Wang Xiangxi, the emergency management minister and deputy commander of the earthquake relief headquarters at the State Council, China’s cabinet, urged “the rapid verification of the earthquake conditions and damage”, the ministry said.
“The disaster situation is still being assessed,” added the statement, which was issued three hours after the earthquake.

The quake struck Longxi county in southeastern Gansu at 5.49am local time at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre.
In the ensuing two hours, 42 aftershocks were recorded, including two measuring between magnitude 4.0 and 4.9, CCTV reported.
Tremors were felt across neighbouring areas, including the provincial capital Lanzhou, about 145km to the northwest, according to state media.
Netizens also said the waves were felt as far away as Xi’an, the capital of the neighbouring Chinese province of Shaanxi, about 400km to the east.
The state broadcaster said disaster relief personnel were checking key infrastructure in the affected area for potential damage, including transport, power and communications.
The earthquake caused three trains to suspend operations, the report said. It added that a high-speed railway, designed to travel between 250 and 350km/h and passing through the city of Dongxi near the epicentre, was operating at a reduced speed of 40 to 60 km/h.
An earthquake that measures above magnitude 5 is classified as moderate to strong and can cause damage to buildings and structures.
Gansu, situated on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau, is among China’s most earthquake-prone regions.
In 2023, a magnitude 6.2 quake in Gansu’s Jishishan county killed 151 people, prompting Chinese President Xi Jinping to urge authorities to “make every effort” to treat the injured, repair infrastructure and resettle affected residents.
That was China’s deadliest quake since an earthquake in 2014 killed 617 people in Yunnan province.