The 5.0-magnitude quake struck at 3:05 am on Monday (1905 GMT Sunday) at a depth of 15 kilometres (nine miles) with its epicentre 285 kilometres southeast of Altay, a city of 142,000 near the Mongolian border, the US Geological Survey said.
The quake has left cracks in more than 300 homes and 170 farm animal sheds, -- forcing around 460 people to flee -- the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing a local government spokesman.
The spokesman said the quake also "disrupted the lives" of over 23,000 people, Xinhua reported, without specifying how.
There have been no reports of casualties.
Xinjiang is a vast mountainous region in the north-west of China, covering around a sixth of the country. Around 20 million people live there, eight million of them Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim grouping. (S008/AK/K004)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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