Early-morning earthquake injures 11 in northwest China’s Gansu province

BEIJING (AP) — A 5.6-magnitude earthquake scattered roof tiles and knocked over houses Saturday in northwest China’s Gansu province, state media said.

Eleven people were taken to area hospitals with injuries, state broadcaster CCTV said. Five of the six people brought to one hospital were admitted for further treatment, the official Xinhua News Agency said. They were in stable condition.

The earthquake struck at 5:49 a.m. in Longxi county at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), the Chinese government earthquake center said. The epicenter was about 140 kilometers (87 miles) southeast of Lanzhou, the provincial capital.

Seventeen houses were destroyed and more than 3,500 residential buildings were damaged, state media said. About 7,800 people in Longxi and Zhangxian counties have been relocated.

Videos posted online by state media showed emergency workers using shovels to clear bricks and other rubble. Some sections of a road were strewn with rocks and other debris, but traffic was flowing, Xinhua said.