China earthquake: Video of Panda mother helping babies escape from room during earthquake goes viral – WATCH

Chengdu: A total of 21 people have been killed in a 6.8-magnitude earthquake that jolted Luding County in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Monday, local authorities said.

The impact severed telecommunications lines and triggered mountain landslides that caused "serious damage", local media reports said.

Some 21 million people in Sichuan's capital Chengdu were on Friday ordered to stay home because of Covid rules.

The epicentre of the quake was at Luding, a town in a remote mountain region located about 226km southwest of Chengdu, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre.

Tremors shook buildings in Chengdu and the neighbouring mega-city of Chongqing, leaving roads blocked and cutting telecommunications lines in areas home to more than 10,000 residents, according to CCTV.

The shocks also forced some power stations to shut down in the areas of Garze and Ya'an, the Chinese broadcaster said.

More than 500 rescue personnel have been despatched to the epicentre, while workers laboured to clear roadblocks caused by landslides, according to state broadcaster CGTN.

Chengdu residents reported seeing people running out of their high-rise apartments in a panic after receiving earthquake alerts on their phones, the BBC said in its report

When the shaking began, "all the dogs started barking. It was really quite scary".

As Chengdu is currently under epidemic management, people aren't allowed to leave their residential compounds, so many of them rushed out into their courtyards, BBC quoted residents as saying.

The latest disaster comes months after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake tore through Sichuan in June. (Inputs from UNI)