BEIJING–A strong aftershock struck a western Chinese region where a May earthquake killed almost 70,000 people, shaking buildings a few hours after the Olympic torch relay passed through the area yesterday.

One person was killed and 23 injured.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the earthquake at magnitude 6.0.

It struck shortly before 6 p.m. local time and the geological survey said the epicentre was 50 kilometres northwest of Guangyuan town in Sichuan province.

Panicked residents fled into the streets as the quake rattled Qingchuan County in southwest Sichuan, and also jolted buildings in neighbouring Shaanxi province’s Hanzhong and Xi’an cities and the sprawling municipality of Chongqing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The casualties were reported in Yaodu, a township in Qingchuan, Xinhua said.

The earthquake occurred a few hours after the Olympic torch relay passed through Sichuan’s capital of Chengdu.

Associated Press

Canada bus passenger beheading suspect in court

A man has appeared in a Canadian court after a bus passenger was decapitated and disembowelled.

Vince Weiguang Li did not enter a plea as he was presented before a judge with his legs shackled accused of second degree murder.

The 40-year-old is accused of killing bus passenger Tim McLean, 22, in a seemingly motiveless attack on a Greyhound bus between Edmonton and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Witnesses on the bus claim the victim’s head was shown to them by the man before he began disembowelling the body.

Mr McLean has not yet been officially identified but a tribute group set up on social networking website Facebook already has more than 5,000 members.

In an email to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Jossie Kehler, a friend of Mr McLean, told of her sadness at the incident.

“He has a lot of friends and they are all very upset he’s gone, and they would like to say they miss him and he will always be in their hearts,” she wrote.

Police sergeant Steve Colwell said officers caught the man when he smashed a window on the bus and tried to escape.

He added that it was still unclear what provoked the attack.

Fellow passengers claimed the attacker did not appear to know the victim and wore dark sunglasses throughout the attack despite it being the middle of the night.

The victim is reported to have been stabbed between 50 and 60 times before his head was severed with a ‘large knife’.

Eyewitness Garnet Caton told CBC television: “All of a sudden, we all heard this scream, this bloodcurdling scream.

“The attacker was standing up right over the top of the guy with a large hunting knife – a survival, Rambo knife – holding the guy and continually stabbing him… in the chest area.”

The bus passengers fled the scene but Mr Caton and the driver returned to see if Mr McLean was still alive.

The man then ran at them and they were forced to hold the bus doors shut to prevent him from reaching them.

“He calmly walks up to the front [of the bus] with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stares at us and drops the head right in front of us,” Mr Caton said.

“There was no rage in him… It was just like he was a robot or something.”