Embankments along banks of the Yangtze River withstood the test of an earthquake that jolted an area between Jiujiang City and Ruichang County in east China's Jiangxi Province Saturday.

An official of the flood control and drought relief headquarters of Jiujiang City, said they had inspected the 123.89-km-long embankment on the section between Ruichang and Pengze counties and found no damages. The earthquake and ensuing aftershocks caused cracks in some buildings near the river. Some smaller canals were blocked.

Workers from the local flood control departments have been busy clearing the blocked canals, according to the official.

Another 87.3-kilometer-long embankment on the northern bank of the Yangtze in Hubei Province near the quake-affected region also suffered no damage.

Chen Shaohua, who is in charge of embankment maintenance in Wuxue City of Hubei Province, said the river embankment in Wuxue remains undamaged, adding that the infrastructure was designed to resist earthquakes measuring over 7 on the Richter scale.

So far officials in Jiangxi Province have reported 12 deaths and 20 injuries. In neighboring Hubei province one person had been killed and some 80 people injured.

More than 200 homes have been destroyed and over 1,000 houses have been damaged in Wuxue City and Huangmei, Jichun and Tongshan counties in eastern Hubei Province.

The China National Seismic Observation Network monitored the earthquake which measured 5.7 on the Richter scale in an area between Jiujiang and Ruichang in east China's Jiangxi Province around 8:49 a.m. Saturday. Its epicenter was located at 29.7 degrees north latitude, 115.7 degrees east longitude.

The quake was also felt in southern Anhui Province, northwestern Zhejiang Province and northeastern Hunan Province.

(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2005)