ZHAOTONG, China - A couple from Ludian county here reportedly dug their four children out of the rubble after their home collapsed following a massive earthquake on Sunday.

Luo Faming and his wife were picking red peppers in their yard as their children watched television inside the home when the quake struck, according to China Daily.

"Our house made of soil shook strongly at that time and later collapsed," Luo told the website, adding all four children were buried under the rubble. "I was shocked and asked my wife to help dig our children out quickly with hoes," the website quoted the father as saying. "I dug my eldest son out first and he looked good, which comforted me to some extent."

Neighbours of the couple rushed to help and the other three children were also rescued, the report said.

Three of the children suffered injuries and one of them was reportedly hospitalised with serious wounds and is in a coma. It took the couple two hours to travel a distance of 10 kilometers of damaged roads to the hospital from their county - one of the worst affected regions, the report said. The most injured child has been taken to Zhaotong city for further treatment.

State-run China Central Television had broadcast images of a mountainside dotted with small homes reduced to shattered shells after the 6.1 magnitude quake struck the Yunnan province last Sunday.

A total of 381 people had been killed by the tremor, with 1,801 injured in the quake, according to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs.

More than 12,000 houses collapsed and 30,000 were damaged in the quake zone in the southwestern province of Yunnan, China's official news agency Xinhua said.