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Yunnan quake kills five; injures over 400
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-11 13:06

Villagers were living outdoors and hospitals were jammed after a strong earthquake shook China's southwest, killing as many as five people and injuring more than 400, officials said Wednesday.

Some 92 aftershocks have been felt since the magnitude-5.6 quake struck Ludian County in earthquake-prone Yunnan province on Tuesday evening, a county official, Shi Zaiqing, said by telephone.

State television said five people were killed.

Shi put the death toll at two and said 422 people were injured when the quake rolled through the area at 6:26 p.m. (1326 GMT). He said residents were evacuated.

The area's three hospitals ``all were packed with injured people,'' he said.

The quake Tuesday caused 5,175 houses to collapse and damaged thousands more, according to a statement on the county government Web site.

Residents were living in tents or sleeping outdoors, but summer temperatures were comfortable and supplies of drinking water and food were adequate, Shi said.

Ludian county, with about 370,000 people, is one of China's poorest areas.

The epicenter was 255 kilometers (160 miles) north of Kunming, the provincial capital.

In November, two quakes measuring magnitude-5.1 and 5.0 rocked the Ludian area, killing four people and injuring 120.

Elsewhere in Yunnan, a magnitude-6.2 tremor in July 2003 killed 16 people, while another last October killed three.

Hou Jiansheng, a seismologist at the China Seismological Bureau, said late Tuesday night that the number of dead and injured in Ludian may rise because ``it's a poor rural area and their facilities aren't too good.''



 
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