Beijing - An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale hit a remote area of the Tibetan plateau in China's Qinghai province Thursday, the State Seismological Bureau said.

The quake rattled a sparsely populated area with an average altitude of 5,000 metres above sea level in the Tanggula Mountains at 6:58 am (2258 GMT Wednesday), the bureau said.

The epicentre was 17 kilometres from the Qinghai-Tibet railway, a controversial line opened in July 2006 to link Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, to the rest of China.

State media quoted officials as saying there were no immediate reports of damage to the railway or of damage or casualties in local settlements.

But the Qinghai provincial government had asked local officials to conduct an immediate survey of affected areas and "get fully prepared in case of emergencies," the official Xinhua news agency said. (dpa)