Two men were injured yesterday when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit a mining area in the Haixi Mongolian and Tibet autonomous prefecture of Qinghai province, the local government said on its website.

The quake happened at about 9:22 am, and its epicenter was in Da Qaidam, a sparsely populated town of about 16,000 Mongolian, Tibetan, Muslim Hui and Han people, the prefecture government said.

According to the People's Daily's website, more than 25 aftershocks were reported before noon in the area, with the strongest being a magnitude 5, which struck at about 11:44 am.