Rescue operations under way in China after earthquake

Rescue operations were reported to be under way after 23 people were killed and more than 60 were injured in an earthquake that struck Shangyi and Zhangbei counties in northern China's Hebei Province, Xinhua news agency reported.

The agency quoted the State Seismological Bureau (SSB) as saying that damage to property, such as cracks in housing, had been found in 90 per cent of the houses in the county town of Zhangbei.

About 800 houses in the Shangyi County town had also either cracked or collapsed.

It said rescue work was continuing in the quake-hit areas, some 220km northwest of Beijing.

The epicentre of the quake, measuring 6.2 on the Richter Scale, was in the area between Shangyi County and Zhangbei County of Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province.

The quake struck at 1150 (0350 gmt ) on Saturday.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.