An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale rocked Wenchuan in Sichuan on May 12, leading to tens of thousands of deaths and many people homeless.

While the province is far away, Hong Kong people can still help by making donations at district offices and post offices to fund relief operations in the disaster areas.

The Hong Kong Observatory said the tremor occurred 1,500km northwest of Hong Kong, yet several local residents said they felt the quake, which lasted several seconds.

Search and rescue operations are underway, and volunteers from Hong Kong Government departments have arrived in Chengdu to help with rescue work in earthquake-stricken areas.

Most quakes occur along the boundaries of crustal plates. Hong Kong lies within the Eurasian Plate and is far away from the nearest boundary with the Pacific Plate on the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt that runs through Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. The chance of a major local tremor is therefore very small.

More details on earthquakes in Hong Kong can be found here. For safety tips click here.