Quake kills dozens in China
A strong earthquake in southwestern China has killed at least 26 people and injured 79.
The US Geological Survey says the magnitude-6.1 quake hit Yunnan province on Sunday at a depth of 10 kilometres. The China Earthquake Networks Centre said the magnitude was 6.5.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency and state broadcaster CCTV both reported that at least 26 people died and 79 were injured in the quake. An official with Qiaojia county in Yunnan province confirmed those figures.
CCTV said Sunday’s quake was the strongest to hit Yunnan in 14 years.
Xinhua said the quake toppled and cracked buildings, and that people rushed out onto the street as it hit. It also reported the Yunnan provincial earthquake administration sent a 30-member team to the quake’s epicentre.
Chen Guoyong, the head of Longtoushan township, told Xinhua that many houses there had collapsed, and that rescue workers were working to determine casualties.
CCTV said the quake was the strongest to hit Yunnan in 14 years. It reported the quake loosened rocks that blocked a road near the city of Zhaotong and broadcast an image of a car apparently damaged by debris.
In 1970, a magnitude-7.7 earthquake in Yunnan killed at least 15,000 people, and a magnitude-7.1 quake in the province killed more than 1,400 in 1974. In September 2012, 81 people died and 821 were injured in a series of quakes in the Yunnan region.
