国际英语新闻：Strong earthquake hits S Chile, no casualties

SANTIAGO, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A strong earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale rocked Araucania region, south of Chile, on Sunday. There were no reports of casualties.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake occurred at 5:20 p.m. local time (2020 GMT), with its epicenter at 16.9 kilometers deep, 70 kilometers north to Temuco city and some 595 kilometers south to Santiago, Chile's capital.

Meanwhile, director of Chile's National Office of Emergency Vicente Nunez on Sunday rejected the risk of a tsunami.

"To the moment there are not report of injured people and damage; only the telephone lines collapsed and there were blackouts," Nunez said in a press conference.

"Chile's Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Navy and the emergency office rejected the possibility of a tsunami," Nunez added.

The earthquake was also felt in the Argentine localities of Bariloche and San Martin de los Andes, 1,630 and 1,673 km, respectively, southwest to Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital.

So far, it is unknown the earthquake's intensity in Argentine, also there were not reported or rejected damage and victims.

On Feb. 27, 2010, an earthquake measuring 8.8 shocked the center-south of Chile, followed by a tsunami, killing more than 500 people and leaving some 800,000 homeless.