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6.1-magnitude quake in China

Sichuan (CHINA): Twenty-two people were dead after an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit Panzhihua City in southwest China on Saturday.

As of 9 p.m. on Saturday, 17 people were reported dead and about 100 others injured in Sichuan, and five others dead and 26 other injured in neighbouring Yunnan Province.

The earthquake struck the juncture of Renhe District of Panzhihua and Huili County of Liangshan Prefecture at 4:30 p.m. (Beijing time).

The epicentre was about 50 km southeast of downtown Panzhihua, said the National Seismograph Network Centre.

A 54-year-old man was killed in Miyi County and another person was killed Yanbian County.

Nearly 1,000 houses were destroyed and cracks appeared in walls of more than 400 houses.

In the affected counties of Liangshan Prefecture, 86 people were injured, and many houses were destroyed or in dangerous conditions. The number of people buried in the ruins were not immediately available.

The quake also affected Chuxiong Prefecture in Yunnan Province, leaving five people dead and 26 others were injured, 11 severely, said a prefecture government official.

Yunan’s capital, Kunming, about 150 km from the epicentre, and Sichuan’s capital of Chengdu both felt the tremor. — Xinhua

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