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China's State Seismological Bureau Friday released a preliminary assessment of the impact caused by the devastating earthquake that hit Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on February 24 this year.
The report said that the powerful earthquake, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, killed 268 people and injured more than 4,000.
It hit a total area of 22,517 square kilometers, affecting 650,000 people in over 900 villages of five counties. The total loss values at about 1.3 billion yuan (US$157 million), according to the report.
To gather precise and detailed information on the earthquake, five survey teams were dispatched to the devastated regions and 50,000 questionnaires were distributed, experts said.
The tremor destroyed about 20,000 houses, leaving thousands of people homeless. Water and power supplies were cut off in many places in the region.
According to the report, a total of 591 schools and 384 mosques were toppled and 47 health facilities suffered.
The quake was the largest ever in Xinjiang in terms of the number of deaths and injures, experts said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2003)
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