'Five dead' after earthquake in south-western China
Saturday, 30 Aug 2008 18:14
Five killed after earthquake with possible 6.1 magnitude hit China
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Five people have been killed after an earthquake with a possible magnitude of 6.1 hit China's south-west Sichuan province, according to state media.
A tremor hit around 20 to 30 miles from Panzhihua City near the border with Yunnan province at 16:30pm (08:30 BST), according to the Xinhua news agency.
Three people have been killed in Yuamo county in Yunnan, with one person killed in Miya county and another in Lihui, both in Sichuan.
The US Geological Survey, meanwhile, has measured the quake at 5.7 on the Richter scale.
Yunnan province was hit by a 5.3 quake earlier this month, forcing the evacuation of 1,200 people, while at least 70,000 people were killed in May when a 7.9 tremor impacted upon Sichuan.
Some five million people were made homeless by the earthquake, which caused the highest death toll for a natural disaster of its kind since 1976, when 242,000 people were killed in Tangshan.