Quake Leaves at Least 367 Dead in Southwestern China

 

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck southwest China on Sunday left at least 367 dead and 1,881 wounded in a remote mountainous area of ​​Yunnan province, and caused some buildings to collapse , including a school.

The United States Geological Survey said the quake struck at a shallow depth, less than 1.6 miles.

Chinese state media reported that the quake was felt strongest in Yunnan, as well as in the adjacent provinces of Guizhou and Sichuan.

The official Xinhua news agency said the epicenter was in the village of Longtoushan, Ludian County of Yunnan Province.

Communications have been severely affected and rescuers are coming to the site, the report said.

Photos uploaded to Internet by state media showed soldiers carrying the wounded and damaged by bricks that fell from buildings cars.

Many people left the buildings to the street after the earthquake cut the power supply and at least one school collapsed, according to Xinhua.

More than 12,000 houses collapsed and 30,000 were damaged, the state agency said Chinese news.

The Government sent 2,000 tents, 3,000 beds, 3,000 mattresses and 3,000 coats to the disaster zone, where heavy rains forecast for the next days will exacerbate the problems, the report said.

Ludian home to about 265,900 people, Xinhua reported.

China is often affected by earthquakes in that part of the country and an earthquake killed more than 1,400 people in the same area of ​​Yunnan in 1974.

In 2008, an earthquake in Sichuan killed nearly 70,000 people.(Reporting by Ben Blanchard. Published in Spanish by Patricio Abusleme)