At least three dead, dozens injured after series of earthquakes hit parts of China
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Firefighters setting up temporary tents for people displaced by an earthquake in Yangbi County, Dali Prefecture, in China's south-west Yunnan province yesterday.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
BEIJING • A series of strong earthquakes rattled north-west and south-west China, leaving at least three people dead, local officials and seismologists said.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Yunnan late on Friday, killing three people with at least 27 injured, state television reported yesterday.
The quake hit at a depth of 8km and was followed by aftershocks, CCTV reported, citing data from China Earthquake Networks Centre.
CCTV quoted the authorities saying the collapse of some roads along with landslides had cut some transportation lines, but electricity, telephones and Internet were working.
Then a few hours later, at 1804 GMT, more than 1,200km away, a 7.3-magnitude quake jolted China's sparsely populated Qinghai province in the north-west, followed by an aftershock.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the remote area.
State news agency Xinhua said the epicentre was located in Maduo County.
Emergency personnel and disaster relief teams were sent to both sites, the agency reported.
In Yunnan, the provincial government said some buildings had collapsed and others had been damaged, and that the "disaster situation was undergoing further verification".
More than 20,000 people have been evacuated, it said. More than 100,000 people live in the area, the vast majority of them in rural communities.
Local media published videos showing ceiling lamps swinging and vases falling off shelves, as well as groups of people who had run outdoors after the quake.
The China Earthquake Networks Centre warned people to "stay away from buildings" in a post on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.
The quake monitor said the earthquake followed a series of smaller quakes less than an hour before.
China is regularly hit by earthquakes, especially in its mountainous western and south-western regions.
In 2010, a 6.9-magnitude quake in Qinghai left 3,000 people dead or missing. In 2014, hundreds of people were injured and more than 100,000 displaced after a 6.0-magnitude tremor hit Yunnan, close to China's borders with Myanmar and Laos.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS