14 Killed, More Than 200 Hurt in 6.4 Quake in Inner Mongolia

At least 14 people were killed and more than 200 injured after one of the worst earthquakes to hit China’s Inner Mongolia jolted the region Friday, officials said.

Dozens of houses collapsed when the 6.4-magnitude tremor rocked the region, with its epicenter about 335 miles northwest of Beijing, a State Seismological Bureau official said.

“As far as we know at the moment, 14 people have been killed by the earthquake,” said the official, speaking by telephone from the seismological bureau in the city of Baotou, 31 miles south of the epicenter.

“The shaking was very serious, very terrible. . . . This is the biggest earthquake in history for this region,” the official added.

The earthquake hit at 11:32 a.m. and was felt in much of northern China, including Beijing, where high-rise buildings swayed perceptibly.

In Baotou, at least 36 people were injured, including one who sustained a broken spine after jumping out a window in terror, an official of the city government said by telephone.

Authorities had sent squads of soldiers and doctors across the city to treat the injured and assess damage, he said.

“We are currently organizing the People’s Liberation Army and medical teams for rescue and emergency work,” the city official said.

Baotou, a city of more than 1.3 million people, is a major railway artery and commercial center on the Yellow River. It is also a key industrial city, with major iron, steel, cement and textile factories.

A series of aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 5 shook the region throughout Friday, the official New China News Agency said.

Friday’s temblor was the third major tremor to strike China this year, following quakes in southwestern Yunnan province and in the northwestern Xinjiang region.