An earthquake toppled houses and damaged a hotel and supermarket in China’s extreme southwest near the border with Myanmar yesterday, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 150, officials and state media said.
Witnesses reported that people were buried under debris from buildings damaged by the quake, which was centered in Yunnan Province’s Yingjiang County, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Web site of the Chinese government earthquake monitoring station said the magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck just before 1pm at a depth of 10km. The US Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 5.4 and at a deeper 35km.
At least 14 people were killed and 157 were hurt, an official with the Yunnan Disaster Relief Center said.
Another official on duty at the center said many houses had been toppled.
Xinhua said the army was sending soldiers to the site for rescue efforts.
The epicenter was in Shiming Village, just over 1km from the county seat, but triggered a power outage across Yingjiang, Xinhua said.
The mountainous area lies 2,400km southwest of Beijing, close to the border with Myanmar.
The Myanmar Meteorological Department released a statement saying a quake had hit about 370km northeast of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.
The statement did not mention injuries, damage or the specific area of Myanmar most affected by the quake. Authorities in the tightly ruled country tend not to immediately discuss the effects of natural disasters.
The part of Myanmar that borders Yunnan Province stretches through Myanmar’s northeastern Shan State, with scattered border towns between stretches of mountainous terrain.
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