People should not feel panicked over the frequent occurrence of earthquakes so far this year in China, a Chinese seismological official said Thursday.

Addressing a press conference, Li Qianghua, information chief with the China Seismological Bureau (CSB), said the frequency of tremors is not abnormal in regard to the laws of geological movement.

Earthquakes do not occur in equally paced periods of time, Li noted, so it is normal that the country saw many earthquakes in the first eight months this year.

Located between the Pacific Plate and the Indian Plate, an area where geological movements are intense, China is vulnerable to earthquakes.

According to statistics from the CSB, China has been hit by 27 earthquakes measuring above 5.0 on the Richter scale since the beginning of the year, 22 of which took place on the Chinese mainland. Only nine earthquakes above 5.0 took place in the country last year.

Noting that the high frequency this year has caused public concern, Li said that people should not be preoccupied by fear of the tremors.

As for the 18 quakes measuring between 5.0 to 6.0, 11 were aftershocks of the jolt in Bachu and Jiashi in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in February, which killed 268 people, Li said.

While fear can not ward off the tremors of the earth, Li said, it is important for people to learn how to prevent disaster and protect themselves.

In addition to improving its research in the forecasting of quakes, China will also strengthen education on self-protection and disaster prevention in the future, Li said.

Meanwhile, Li said that the country has decided to set up two regional quake emergency rescue teams in its western regions, where earthquakes are much more frequent than other areas.

Individual provinces and autonomous regions are also encouraged to set up their own rescue teams, Li said.

China's earthquake emergency response mechanism improved

China has been continuously improving its earthquake emergency response mechanism over recent years and the efforts have proven a success in the rescue work of a series of earthquakes, according to the official with China Seismological Bureau (CSB).

China's first national Earthquake Disaster Emergency Relief and Rescue Team was founded in 2001, consisting of engineer soldiers, seismologists and medical workers.

The team, equipped with advanced search and rescue tools, medical apparatuses and facilities and sniffer dogs, played a significant role in the rescue work of earthquakes that hit northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Algeria.

At present, earthquake emergency response plans have been formulated by governments at various levels.

At a national conference on earthquake and disaster relief held in 2000, China pledged to further improve its quake response mechanism, establish an earthquake rescue force and popularize a seismic designs for buildings.

The Chinese government at various levels plans to allocate more than 2.7 billion yuan (325 million US dollars) to construct a comprehensive China Digital Earthquake Observation Network by 2007.

The digital network will be highly precise and sophisticated in monitoring and forecasting quakes and is widely expected to better serve the needs of the country's urban planning and construction works.

(People's Daily September 5, 2003)