Beijing, March 10: At least 24 people have been killed and 207 others injured after an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale struck Yingjiang County in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan.
The tremor occurred at 12:58 p.m. local time (0458 GMT) on Thursday, the Xinhua news agency cited the China Earthquake Networks Center as saying.
The epicenter was monitored at 24.7 degrees north latitude and 97.9 degrees east longitude, with a depth of 10 kilometers.
Over 1,000 houses and apartment buildings collapsed in the quake and 33 of those injured are reported to be in a critical condition in area hospitals. A series of aftershocks, measuring up to 4.7 degrees on the Richter scale, rattled Yingjiang County within 10 minutes from the first jolt.
The worst of China’s earthquakes in recent years was the Sichuan earthquake, which took place on May 12, 2008. About 70,000 people were killed and at least 4.8 million people were made homeless.
Most of the buildings that collapsed were in rural areas and did not adhere to building codes.
The eight-magnitude Sichuan earthquake was the deadliest to strike China since the 1976 Tangshan quake, which killed 240,000 people.
—-Agencies