Earthquake measuring 7.6 Richter scale hits SW China

A street in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan  Province, is covered by water after a water pipe blew out  during an earthquake on May 12, 2008. A major earthquake  measuring 7.8 Richter Scale jolted Wenchuan County of Sichuan  province at 2:28 p.m. on Monday. (Xinhua Photo)

A retiree in Leshan City, Sichuan Province, said in a telephone interview that a wall in her garden had collapsed, while a repairman in Chongqing saw the ceiling of his factory crumble and raised the alarm among the staff, who quickly left the building.

In Shanghai, people were evacuated from office buildings in Hongqiao and Nanjing Road.

No casualties have been reported yet.

Maowen, a neighboring county of Wenchuan, was hit by an quake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale in 1933, which claimed more than 9,000 lives. Songpan and Pingwu in the northwest of Sichuan Province were hit by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 in 1976.