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The earthquake struck at 5:02 pm (09:02 GMT) around 320 kilometres (200 miles) northwest of the city of Chengdu in Sichuan province, the US Geological Survey said.
It hit at a shallow depth of 13 kilometres (eight miles), the USGS said.
Sichuan is still rebuilding after a massive 8.0-magnitude earthquake in the region in May 2008 left nearly 87,000 people dead or missing.