Strong earthquake in China kills 3 A STRONG, shallow earthquake has struck a moderately populated part of western China and state media reported at least three deaths. The quake hit near the city of Dingxi in Gansu province, a largely desert and pastureland region with a population of 26 million. That makes it one of China's more lightly populated provinces, although the Dingxi area has a greater concentration of farms and towns with a total population of about 2.7 million. The three deaths were reported in Min County in the rural southern part of Dingxi municipality, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday. The government's earthquake monitoring centre says the magnitude was 6.6, which can cause severe damage. More quakes were detected during the morning, including a magnitude-5.6. It said the initial quake at 7:45am (0945 AEST) hit about 20km beneath the surface, although the Gansu provincial earthquake administration says the quake was at an even shallow depth of just 6km. Dingxi is about 1,233km west of Beijing. China's worst earthquake in recent years was an 8.9 magnitude temblor that struck the southwestern province of Sichuan in 2008, leaving 90,000 people dead or missing.