An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 shook parts of northwest China's Gansu Province on Sunday. No casualties have been reported so far.

But the quake damaged more than 1,000 houses in the Huangcheng Township in Yugur Autonomous County of Sunan, the epic center.

"Big cracks were found in the wall of the houses after the earthquake. They will need to be rebuilt or reinforced," said Gao Shengfu, Party chief of the Huangcheng Township.

The tremor hit the township at 4:32 PM on Sunday. It also damaged parts of local power grid, but the power supplies were soon restored following emergency repair work.

The Huangcheng Township boasts rich coal resources and local authorities have ordered the mines to suspend production.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2008)