The deadly earthquake occurred while 21 million residents in the province were already under a COVID-19 lockdown. Authorities reported stones and soil falling from mountainsides, causing damage to homes and power interruptions.
At least 21 people were reported killed in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that shook China's southwestern province of Sichuan on Monday, triggering landslides and shaking buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, whose 21 million residents are already under a COVID-19 lockdown.
Sichuan, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau where tectonic plates meet, is regularly hit by earthquakes. Two quakes in June killed at least four people. "There was a strong earthquake in June, but it wasn’t very scary. This time I was really scared, because I live on a high floor and the shaking made me dizzy," she told The Associated Press.