Reuters news
written by Ben Blanchard
Monday August 4, 2014
BEIJING - A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southwestern China on Sunday, killing at least 367 people and leaving 1,881 injured in a remote area of Yunnan province, and causing thousands of buildings, including a school, to collapse.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered at a shallow depth of less than 1 mile (1.6 km). Chinese state media said it was felt most strongly in Yunnan as well as in the neighbouring provinces of Guizhou and Sichuan.
The official Xinhua news agency said the epicentre was in Longtoushan town in Yunnan's mountainous Ludian county.
Communications have been seriously affected and rescuers have begun arriving on the scene, the report said.
Pictures posted online by state media showed troops stretchering people away and cars damaged by fallen bricks.
Many people rushed out of buildings onto the street after the quake hit, electricity supplies were cut and at least one school collapsed, Xinhua added, with more than 12,000 houses having collapsed and 30,000 sustaining damage.
Ludian resident Ma Liya told Xinhua the streets were like a "battlefield after bombardment".
The government is sending 2,000 tents, 3,000 folding beds, 3,000 quilts and 3,000 coats to the disaster zone, where heavy rain forecast for the coming days will add to the misery, the report said.
Ludian is home to some 265,900 people, Xinhua added.
This region of China is frequently struck by quakes, with one killing more than 1,400 in the same part of Yunnan in 1974.
A quake in Sichuan in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people.
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New York Daily News
written by AP staff
Sunday August 3, 2014
BEIJING — A strong earthquake in southern China's Yunnan province toppled thousands of homes on Sunday, killing at least 367 people and injuring more than 1,800.
About 12,000 homes collapsed in Ludian, a densely populated county located around 366 kilometers (277 miles) northeast of Yunnan's capital, Kunming, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The magnitude-6.1 quake struck at 4:30 p.m. at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was in Longtoushan township, 23 kilometers (14 miles) southwest of the city of Zhaotong, the Ludian county seat.
Ma Liya, a resident of Zhaotong, told Xinhua that the streets there were like a "battlefield after bombardment." She added that her neighbor's house, a new two-story building, had toppled, and said the quake was far worse than one that struck the area in 2012 and killed 81 people.
"The aftermath is much, much worse than what happened after the quake two years ago," Ma said. "I have never felt such strong tremors before. What I can see are all ruins."
Xinhua said at least 367 people were killed in the quake, with 1,881 injured.
Most of the deaths — 357 — were in Zhaotong City, Xinhua said. Another 10 people were killed in Quijing City.
News reports said rescuers were still trying to reach victims in more remote towns Sunday night.
Photos on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media site, showed rescuers searching through flattened buildings and people injured amid toppled bricks.
Many of the homes that collapsed in Ludian, which has a population of about 429,000, were old and made of brick, Xinhua said, adding that electricity and telecommunications were cut off in the county.
The mountainous region where the quake occurred is largely agricultural, with farming and mining the top industries, and is prone to earthquakes.
Relief efforts were underway, with more than 2,500 troops dispatched to the disaster region, Xinhua said. The Red Cross Society of China allocated quilts, jackets and tents for those made homeless by the quake, while Red Cross branches in Hong Kong, Macau and neighboring Sichuan province also sent relief supplies.
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