URUMQI, China, March 23 (UPI) -- The remote northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China was shaken by more than 12 earthquakes this week, officials said.
An estimated 44,000 residents were affected by the quakes and some 2,200 homes in the counties of Yutian, Qira and Lop in southern Xinjiang's Hotan Prefecture were damaged, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Saturday.
Many vegetable greenhouses and livestock barns collapsed during the Friday quakes, a Department of Civil Affairs spokesman said. Estimated damages reportedly totaled $1.4 million.
No deaths were reported.
The most intense quake, registering 7.3 on the Richter scale, shook Yutian early Friday and was followed by about a dozen aftershocks that registered 3.8 or more. The Xinjiang seismological bureau said several other small tremors were recorded.
People in 110 homes were evacuated in the village of Pulu, near the quake epicenter. A reported 120 government-built quake-resistant homes in the area were not evacuated, local officials said.
