Xinjiang earthquake kills 3 in China — Emergency alert issued

Magnitude 6.5 earthquake in China's northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has claimed lives of three person and injured 43 others.

According to the China Earthquake Networks Center(CENC), a 6.5 magnitude earthquake rocked Pishan County at 9:07 a.m. at a depth of 10 km.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) revised the death toll from six to three Friday evening, Xinhua reported. The earthquake has also damaged 12,000 houses causing evacuations of about 66,000 people. Most of the collapsed houses are traditional, mainly in the ethnic Uighur region.

The direct economic losses of the quake has been preliminarily estimated as 190 million yuan (30.6 million U.S. dollars),

The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the China National Commission for Disaster Reduction sent work teams to assist relief efforts in the quake-hit areas, urging preparation for relief materials.

A grade IV response was initiated after the earthquake. It is a 24-hour alert, daily damage reports, and dispatching money and relief materials within 48 hours.

Magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Ludian county killed hundreds of people in August 2014.