An earthquake measuring 3.9 on the Richter Scale struck Wenchuan county in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 10:41 a.m. Friday, the local seismological department said.

Witnesses said houses shook notably when the tremor struck, and someone was heard yelling:"make haste and run".

"The tremor, however, didn't last long. Before long, people began to hurry back into houses to work," said one witness surnamed Xiao.

Normal work at offices of the county government departments was not interrupted.

Wenchuan was the epicenter of the May 12 8.0-magnitude earthquake which killed 69,207 as of Thursday noon, with 18,194 people injured and 374,216 still reported missing.

A total of 21,245 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2008)