State media said that a strong 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck a remote area in western China

BEIJING (AP) — A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck a remote area in China's western Xinjiang region early Tuesday, downing power lines, destroying at least two homes and prompting authorities to suspend trains, state media reported.

Xinhua News Agency quoted the China Earthquake Networks Center as saying that the earthquake shook Ochturbahn County (Wuxi County in Mandarin) in Aksu County shortly after 2 a.m. local time.

Aksu authorities said two houses collapsed, and about 200 rescuers were sent to the epicenter, according to state broadcaster CCTV. CCTV reported that the Xinjiang Railway Authority stopped dozens of trains in the region and closed the affected sections. Aksu authorities said that the earthquake led to the cutting of power lines, but electricity quickly returned to the area.

There were no immediate reports of deaths.

The US Geological Survey said the quake occurred in the Tien Shan mountain range, a “seismically active area, although earthquakes of this size occur fairly rarely.” The largest earthquake in the region in the past century was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in 1978 about 200 kilometers north early Tuesday, she said.

China Central Broadcasting Corporation said that 14 aftershocks had occurred since the main quake, two of which recorded more than five degrees.

The quake occurred in a rural area populated mostly by Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic Turkic population that has been the target of a government campaign of forced assimilation and mass detention in recent years.

Ochturbahn county at the epicenter is recording temperatures well below zero, with minus 18 degrees Celsius (just below zero Fahrenheit) forecast by the China Meteorological Administration this week. Parts of northern and central China shivered due to severe cold waves this winterThe authorities closed schools and highways several times due to snowstorms.

The earthquake was felt hundreds of kilometers away. Ma Shengyi, a 30-year-old pet store owner who lives in Taqing, 600 kilometers (373 miles) from the quake's epicenter, said her dogs started barking before they felt the tremor of their building. The earthquake was so strong that her neighbors ran downstairs. Ma ran to her bathroom and started crying.

“There is no sense in escaping if the earthquake is big,” Ma said. “I was scared to death.”

Chandeliers swayed, buildings were evacuated, and a media office building near the epicenter shook for a full minute, Xinhua News Agency reported. A video posted by a Chinese netizen on Weibo showed residents standing outside in the streets wearing winter jackets, and a photo published by CCTV showed a cracked wall with pieces falling out.

Tremors were felt across the Xinjiang region and as far away as neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Russian news agency TASS reported that people left their homes in the Kazakh capital, Almaty.

Videos posted on the social messaging platform Telegram showed people in Almaty running down the stairs of apartment buildings and standing outside in the street after feeling strong tremors. Some people appeared to quickly leave their homes and were photographed standing outside in freezing temperatures while wearing shorts.

An earthquake shook Gansu Province, northwest China in December, killing 151 people. This was the deadliest earthquake in China in nine years.

Most earthquakes are in China Strikes in the western part of the country, including the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan, as well as Xinjiang and Tibet.