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Mild quake rumbles through China's Tianjin
BEIJING (AFP) Dec 12, 2003
 A mild earthquake rumbled through China's port city of Tianjin, close to the scene of the most devastating tremor in Chinese history, seismological officials said Friday.

The quake Thursday evening registered 3.8 on the Richter scale and was felt in the capital Beijing, some 120 kilometres (74 miles) away.

No injuries or damage were reported, the China News Service said.

In July 1976 the nearby city of Tangshan was flattened by a 7.8 magnitude quake which killed 242,000 people.

"(Thursday's quake) was an aftershock from the Tangshan earthquake. It's quite normal," said an official from the State Seismological Bureau.

A tremor in August left three people dead and thousands wounded in Chifeng in Inner Mongolia, some 300 kilometres (186 miles) north of Tianjin.

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