BEIJING, (Reuters) – Two shallow 5.6 magnitude earthquakes hit mountainous southwestern China yesterday, killing at least 64 people and forcing tens of thousands of people from damaged buildings, state media said.
The quakes struck near the border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, the first one at 11:19 a.m. (0319 GMT) and the second one about 45 minutes later, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
About 700 people were injured and 20,000 homes damaged in the remote mountainous region about 350 km (210 miles) from the Yunnan provincial capital Kunming, the official Xinhua news agency said.
As the number of dead climbed throughout the day, state media reported that Premier Wen Jiabao would travel to the area, as he has often done when disasters strike Chinese regions.
