BEIJING - More aftershocks with magnitudes as big as 6.0 may hit Northwest China in the wake of a giant earthquake that rocked the area on Wednesday morning, Chinese seismologists predicted.

At 7:49 am on Wednesday, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Yushu county of Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Qinghai province, setting off a series of major aftershocks that measured up to 6.3.

"We cannot rule out the occurrence of another strong aftershock with a magnitude of around 6," Liu Jie, director of the forecasting department of the China Earthquake Networks Center, said on Wednesday.