A mild earthquake rattled Beijing, the capital of China, overnight, startling residents and prompting students to evacuate their dormitories as footage of shaking interiors spread widely on Chinese social media.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the 4.5-magnitude quake struck a suburban area near Tianjin at 1:21 a.m. local time, occurring at a depth of 10 kilometres.
Meanwhile, China’s Earthquake Networks Centre recorded a slightly lower magnitude of 4.2 with a deeper epicentre at 20 kilometres, pinpointing the location in Yongqing County, Hebei province.
According to the Beijing Earthquake Agency, the tremor’s closest point to the capital was just 13 kilometres away, with noticeable shaking in some districts.
However, officials confirmed that no structural damage was recorded, and the earthquake would not disrupt daily life or industrial activities or trigger further seismic movements in the city.
Beijing, home to 22 million people, has occasionally experienced tremors from nearby quakes.
The capital sits within a seismically active region, intersected by multiple fault lines, including one extending from the northeastern Shunyi District through the city centre.