BEIJING: Thousands of rescuers were deployed in southwest China yesterday after a strong earthquake left one person dead and more than 300 injured, with over 100,000 displaced, state-run media reported.
The shallow 6.0 magnitude tremor hit late Tuesday in Yunnan province, close to China’s borders with Myanmar and Laos, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.
School buildings were widely damaged in the area, reports said, although the quake struck during the night and no pupil deaths were recorded.
Xinhua said 100 schools were damaged and cited a local official as saying an estimated 170,000 square metres of buildings needed repairs.
School construction is a touchy subject in China, where more than 5,000 children died as their schools collapsed on top of them in a huge 2008 earthquake in neighbouring Sichuan province. Shoddy buildings, with corruption playing a key role, were widely blamed, provoking public anger.
The latest quake had taken only one life so far, Xinhua said, citing local officials.
More than 124,000 people had been forced from their homes by the quake, Xinhua added, but there had been “little to no rain” in the region in recent days, reducing the risk of landslides.
The US Geological Survey measured the earthquake as magnitude 6.0.
“Many houses collapsed and we are investigating the casualties,” a local official told Xinhua. “The aftershocks seem non-stopping.” AFP
