China Quake Kills 1 Person, Injures 325; 18,000 Homes Toppled

An earthquake in China’s southwestern Yunnan province left one person dead and 325 people injured, the provincial government said.

The magnitude-6 quake struck at 7:19 p.m. local time yesterday in Guantun Township, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the provincial city of Kunming, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Eight aftershocks rattled the region as relief officials distributed tents, medicines and food to people whose homes were destroyed, Xinhua said.

About 18,000 houses were toppled and 75,000 buildings damaged across the province as of 8:30 a.m. today, a provincial government press officer said, declining to give his name.

Officials in Yunnan plan to send 4,500 tents, 3,000 quilts and other relief items to the quake zone, Xinhua said. Teams from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the China Earthquake Administration are heading to the epicenter, according to the report.

Sichuan province in central China is still recovering from last year’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake that killed almost 70,000 people, flattened 4.5 million homes and left millions homeless. It was the country’s deadliest natural disaster in almost three decades.

About 3 percent of the 216,000 buildings that collapsed in the first two days after the Sichuan quake were schools, prompting parents to question whether shoddy construction added to the death toll. The government announced two months ago, shortly before the May 12 anniversary of the disaster, that 5,335 children were killed in the quake.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of yesterday’s quake at 5.7 with a depth of 10 kilometers.

The earthquake had no impact on mining or smelting operations at Yunnan Tin Co., Li Xia, an investor relations official, said by phone today. Yunnan Tin is the world’s biggest producer of the metal. Yunnan Aluminium Co. was also unaffected, Wang Jishi, an official at the company, said by phone.