The quake shook the area at 7:45 am (local time) at the junction of the Minxian County and Zhangxian County, the Gansu Provincial Seismological Bureau said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 20 km, was 170 km away from the provincial capital Lanzhou, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted officials as saying. A 5.6-magnitude quake jolted the same area later at 9:12 a.m, the agency said.