5.1 quake hits western China: USGS

A shallow 5.1-magnitude earthquake shook a remote region of China's far west today, seismologists said.

A shallow 5.1-magnitude earthquake shook a remote region of China's far west on Thursday, seismologists said.

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The quake hit at 11:27 pm local time around 250 kilometres east of the city of Hotan in the Xinjiang region, at a depth of 6.5 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.

Xinjiang is a vast mountainous region in the north-west of China, covering around a sixth of the country. Around 20 million people live there, eight million of them Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim group.

More than 20 people were injured when a 5.2-magnitude quake hit near the Xinjiang city of Kasghar on September 8, according to state media.