Aug 5, 2008 7:00 am US/Eastern
Powerful Quake Batters Sichuan Province In China
BEIJING (CBS News) ―
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An earthquake survivor with his belongings walks throught the rubble of collapsed buildings as he prepare to move out amid fears of rock and mudslides in Hanwang city, in China's southwestern province of Sichuan on June 5, 2008.
Teh Eng Koon/AFP/Getty Images
A powerful earthquake hit China on Tuesday in the same region where almost 70,000 people were killed in May, and on a day the Olympic torch relay passed through. No injuries or damage were reported.
Panicked residents fled into the streets from swaying buildings, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, when the shock measured by the U.S. Geological Survey at magnitude 6.0 struck shortly before 6 p.m. local time.
Xinhua said Tuesday's quake struck Gansu and Shaanxi provinces in Sichuan, shaking buildings in the cities of Hanzhong, Xi'an and Chongqing. There were no reports of damage or injuries,
The temblor was the latest of scores of aftershocks from the 7.9 quake that struck Sichuan on May 12, killing almost 70,000 people and leaving 5 million homeless.
The U.S. seismic service said the epicenter of Tuesday's quake was 30 miles northwest of Guangyuan town at a depth of 6 miles.
The earthquake occurred a few hours after the Olympic torch relay was held in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, its last stop before the flame officially opens the Beijing Games on Friday.
On Friday, an aftershock with the same magnitude as Tuesday's hit Pingwu and Beichuan in Sichuan, injuring 231 people.
CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reported that China has taken a psychological approach to dealing with the May 12 quake victims for the first time in the country's history.
The government has organized mobilized mental health experts to be side-by-side with reconstruction workers in the earthquake zone. It's recognition, Professor Shen Heyong told Petersen, that ignoring trauma can be fatal.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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