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Bill Savadove

Western areas were rocked by two more aftershocks within half an hour of each other yesterday, one centred in  Sichuan province  and a more powerful one in neighbouring Shaanxi province .
A magnitude 5.4 aftershock  shook Sichuan's Qingchuan county shortly after 4pm, the government said. The province was the site of the magnitude 8  earthquake on May 12.
The stronger aftershock, which measured 5.7, struck Ningqiang county in Shaanxi just after 4.30pm. The two aftershocks were felt throughout the two provinces as well as in Chongqing municipality  and Gansu province .
Local authorities reported that five people were injured in the latest aftershock, Xinhua said.
In the Shaanxi  capital of Xian , some people evacuated their homes. 'Many citizens rushed to the streets from their homes,' one resident said.
Xian is home to the nation's   terracotta warriors. It was not immediately clear if the city suffered any damage in the jolt.
In the area worst affected by the original quake, residents barely reacted given the large number of aftershocks. But debris falling from partly ruined buildings was still a cause for concern.
'My whole car was shaking,' said a taxi driver in Mianzhu city . Another Mianzhu resident said: 'We're used to it now. We have become blind.'
Sichuan has experienced thousands of aftershocks since the earthquake more than two weeks ago. The strongest, also centred in Qingchuan, measured 6.4 and killed at least eight people on Sunday. More than 180 have measured over 4 while five were above 6. The aftershock on Sunday  destroyed or damaged more than 270,000 houses.
The latest aftershocks were also felt in the Sichuan  capital, Chengdu , where buildings swayed briefly. Some residents in the city are still sleeping outside, though the number has dropped sharply.
An expert said aftershocks were likely to continue for at least two to three months. 'Judging from previous earthquakes of a similar magnitude, this time the aftershocks may last for two or three months, and it's not relatively long,' said He Yongnian ,  former deputy director of the China Seismological Bureau.



Strong aftershock in Shaanxi follows another in Sichuan