Yesterday's Lushan quake has resulted in serious casualties and economic losses, but it is not expected to be as disastrous as the magnitude-7.9 2008 Wenchuan quake in the area, said Pan Huaiwen, director of the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

Possibilities of aftershocks stronger than 7.0-magnitude are small, he said. But Pan warned of secondary disasters, including landslides.

Jiang Haikun, an official with the CENC's forecasting department, said the Ya'an quake resembles the Wenchuan disaster, as both earthquakes were formed in a similar way, occurring on the Longmen mountain fault zone.

Earthquakes on this 500-km belt are not frequent, but very powerful.

A total of 12 earthquakes at 5.0-magnitude or above have occurred in the area within 100 kilometers of its epicenter since 1900, including the devastating Wenchuan quake in 2008, which left 87,000 people dead or missing.

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