BEIJING, July 4 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake measuring 5.1 degrees on the Richter scale jolted a county in north China's Hebei Province at 11:56 a.m. (Beijing Time) Tuesday, according to the State Seismological Bureau (SSB).

    No casualties are reported at press time, according to the bureau.

    The earthquake was a shallow-focus one, with its epicenter being around 110 kilometers from Beijing and about 80 kilometers from Tianjin. So the quake was clearly felt in the two cities, said Zhang Hongwei, a spokesman for the bureau.

    But the tremor would not cause any damage to Beijing, Zhang said.

    The epicenter of Tuesday's earthquake is located at 38.9 degrees north latitude and 116.3 degrees east longitude in Wen'an county, south of Beijing, according to the SSB.

    As of 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, the Chinese seismological network monitored a aftershock measuring 1.6 degrees on the Richter scale.

    Experts with the SSB called on citizens to keep calm and handle the emergency situation with the anti-quake knowledge they have learned. Experts also warned citizens not to believe in rumors about earthquakes but to listen to information released by the government.

    The SSB has sent a 20-member working group headed by Xiu Jigang, deputy director of SSB, to the quake-affected areas to deal with possible emergency situation.

    The earthquake was also felt in elsewhere in Heibei and some parts of neighboring Shanxi and Shandong provinces. No damages and casualties were reported.

    Seismological experts of Hebei have rushed to the quake-hit areas to investigate the situation and help deal with the aftermath of the quake.

    This month marks the 30th anniversary of an earthquake measuring 7.8 degrees on the Richter Scale that struck Tangshan city, also in Hebei Province, about 200 kilometers east of Beijing, on July 28, 1976. The earthquake left 240,000 people dead, 160,000severely injured and more than 4,000 children orphaned.

    China will also commemorate those who were killed in the 1966 earthquakes, that jolted Xingtai prefecture of Hebei province claiming 8,064 lives and injuring more than 38,000 people.

    According to the general office of the Wen'an County Committee of the Communist Party of China, as of 12:40 Tuesday noon, six of the county's 12 townships reported the earthquake. No causalities and loss of properties were reported.

    A source with the office said possibility of casualties and loss of properties caused by the quake could not be ruled out.

    The earthquake shook high-rise buildings in Beijing. Many people having lunch and working at offices felt shaking chairs. Some of them even ran out of the building to shun possible damages that might be caused by the earthquake.

    Contrary to people sitting in the office, people walking on the street did not feel the tremor.

    A Mr. Li was attending a meeting in a high-rise building in Tianjin, when the earthquake occurred. He said he felt his chair moving back and forth for three times as if somebody was pushing the chair underneath. Li said he also saw a cup on the windowsill shaking for a few seconds.

    Xinhua learned from the Tianjin Municipal Seismological Bureau that no damages caused by the quake were reported in the city within an hour following the quake.

    The bureau ruled out the possibility of a major earthquake in the city in the near future. Enditem