Earthquake hits south-west China

A strong earthquake has shaken south-west China, killing at least one person, damaging buildings and prompting thousands to camp outside as aftershocks continued to strike the area, officials have said.

The earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.0 hit the Weiyuan city area of Yunnan province at 9.49pm on Tuesday when most residents would have been in their homes. At least 324 people were injured, eight of them seriously, the Yunnan provincial government said.

“The whole building was shaking terribly with a loud cracking sound. Plates fell off in the kitchen,” the official state Xinhua News Agency quoted Weiyuan resident Li Anqin as saying. “We all ran out and the streets now are packed with people.”

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake measured magnitude 6.0 at a shallow depth of 6.3 miles (10.1km), while China’s national earthquake monitoring agency gave the magnitude as 6.6 at a depth of 3.1 miles. It said the quake was followed by eight aftershocks, the strongest of which registered at magnitude 4.2.

The Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, ordered an “all-out effort” to rescue quake victims, ensure the delivery of food, water and other supplies, and fix disruptions to transportation and communications.

Worst hit was the town of Yongping, three miles from the epicentre, where some houses collapsed, Xinhua said. Yongping has a population of 54,000, while the surrounding county of Jinggu closest to the epicentre has a population of 290,000.

Xinhua said strong tremors were felt in the provincial capital, Kunming, about 220 miles to the north-east. It said an initial 230-member rescue team was dispatched to the quake area within two hours of its striking.

A state television reporter in the city of Pu’er, about 53 miles from the epicentre, said people fled buildings and were camping outdoors in anticipation of more aftershocks. The reporter, Wang Jian, said there was damage to structures and the local mobile phone network.

The remote mountainous region near the border with Myanmar is prone to earthquakes. A 6.1-magnitude quake in northern Yunnan in August killed at least 615 people and left more than 100 others missing. In 1970 a magnitude-7.7 earthquake in Yunnan killed at least 15,000 people.