BEIJING — A moderate earthquake toppled houses in a mountainous part of southwestern China, killing four people and injuring at least 100, state media said.
Sunday’s
magnitude-5.7 quake was centered near the border of Yunnan and Sichuan
provinces where many of the Yi ethnic minority live, the official Xinhua
News Agency reported Monday. It said the casualties occurred in
Yunnan’s Ninglang county and Sichuan’s Yanyuan county, where many houses
collapsed.
Rescue officials were sending tents, quilts and clothes to the affected area, it said.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 5.5.
A
magnitude-5.8 quake in Yunnan in March last year killed 25 people and
damaged thousands of homes. The area is about 2,340 kilometers (1,450
miles) southwest of Beijing.
China’s worst earthquake in recent
years struck Sichuan province in May 2008 and registered magnitude 7.9.
It left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.
