China Sichuan Province Earthquake Bureau 8.1 Earthquake... False Report

Sichuan Earthquake Bureau Issues 8.1 Earthquake Alert at 21:09:22... System Malfunction
China in Midnight Turmoil Over Earthquake Stronger Than 2008 Sichuan Earthquake

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] Sichuan Province in China drew criticism from Chinese people after a major false report caused by a malfunction in the earthquake detection system.

According to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency on the 6th, the Sichuan Earthquake Bureau announced that an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 occurred near Shangmajian, Naxi District, Luzhou City, Sichuan Province at 21:09:22 the previous day. They added that the epicenter was only 5 km from the hypocenter.

Photo by Baidu Capture

The announcement by the Sichuan Earthquake Bureau caused chaos among Chinese people enjoying the National Day holiday (October 1-7). The magnitude of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake was 8.0. This meant an earthquake larger than the one that killed nearly 70,000 people had occurred.

However, the earthquake alert was revealed to be a false alarm caused by a technical malfunction in the earthquake detection system.

The Sichuan Earthquake Bureau apologized about 40 minutes after the earthquake alert, stating that the information was incorrect due to a system malfunction. They apologized again, saying that no earthquake with a magnitude of 3.0 or higher occurred in Luzhou City and expressed regret for the inconvenience caused.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.