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Hundreds injured in China quake: state media
An earthquake shook southwestern China on Thursday injured more than 330 people, 56 of them seriously, and damaged thousands of homes, state media and seismologists said.
An earthquake shook southwestern China on Thursday injured more than 330 people, 56 of them seriously, and damaged thousands of homes, state media and seismologists said.
The epicentre of the 5.5 magnitude quake was in Guantun, about 200 kilometres from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan
province, according to the China National Seismological Network.
The official Xinhua news agency said a total of 336 people were injured by the quake and more than 2,700 homes
destroyed, according to officials.
The authorities in Yunnan had dispatched 2,500 tents, 3,000 quilts and other aid supplies to a nearby relief agency
headquarters, the report said.
Two working teams, one headed by the Yunnan governor Qin Guangrong, and another from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Commission for Disaster Reduction, were en route to the epicentre, it said.
According to the US Geological Survey, the 5.5 magnitude quake struck at 1119 GMT (1649 IST) at a depth of 54
kilometres and was centred 98 kilometres east-northeast of Dali in Yunnan province.
Up to eight smaller aftershocks occurred after the initial quake, Xinhua said. Nearly 87,000 people were left dead or missing when a massive 8.0 magnitude earthquake shook Sichuan province in China's mountainous southwest in May 2008.
