China quake hits thousands of homes

Chinese television showed scenes of emergency teams setting up shelters at the site A magnitude 6 earthquake has hit southwest China, injuring more than 300 people and destroying 10,000 homes, state media says. Thursday evening's quake, centred in Yunnan province's Yao'an county, damaged another 30,000 homes, the official Xinhua news agency said. Thirty people suffered severe injuries while another 305 were slightly injured, it said, adding that eight aftershocks were recorded. Reporting from Urumqi, Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan said no confirmation of any deaths were coming through yet and officials would probably take some time to get information out of the relatively remote area. China CCTV footage showed residents staying outdoors for fear of aftershocks But she said national officials should be better prepared for disasters following a quake in Sichuan last year that left almost 90,000 people dead or missing. The authorities said they were sending 4,500 tents, 3,000 quilts and other relief materials to Yao'an along with hundreds of policemen. Xinhua said medicine and food were also being distributed to people, many of whom had gathered outdoors for fear of more aftershocks. The US Geological Survey said the a 5.7 magnitude quake struck at 7:19pm (11:19 GMT) on Thursday at a depth of 10km and was centred 98km east-northeast of the city of Dali. Quake-prone area Yunnan is a quake-prone, mountainous region that lies on China's southern border with Thailand and Myanmar. It also borders Sichuan province, where a little more than a year ago a massive earthquake left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing. About 375,000 people were injured in the May 12 quake, which left five million homeless and up to 1.5 million people displaced. The deadliest quake to strike China in over 30 years flattened entire cities and towns, and destroyed hospitals, homes, buildings and factories in nearly 50,000 villages. Thousands of children were buried alive when some 7,000 schools collapsed in the quake. Southwest China sits on two tectonic plates - the Indian and Asian plates - whose constant collision created the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau.