Quakes in southwest China kill dozens, damage 20,000 homes



BEIJING (Reuters) - Two shoal 5.6 bulk earthquakes strike mountainous south-western China upon Friday, killing during slightest 50 people as well as forcing tens of thousands of people from shop-worn buildings, state media said.
The quakes struck near the limit of Yunnan as well as Guizhou provinces, the initial the single during 11:19 a.m. (4:19 a.m. British time) as well as the second the single about 45 minutes later, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
About 160 people were harmed as well as 20,000 homes shop-worn in the remote region about 350 km from the Yunnan provincial collateral Kunming, the central Xinhua headlines group said.
Most of the victims were from Yiliang county in Yunnan, near the epicentre of the quakes, which struck during the abyss of about 9 km (5.6 miles) according to the USGS.
By mid-afternoon, authorities had moved some-more than 100,000 from the area as the array of some-more than 60 aftershocks struck. No deaths were reported in Guizhou province.
Calls to military stations as well as hospitals in Yiliang went unanswered, though the worker during No. 2 Renmin Hospital in Zhaotong city pronounced healing staff were bustling treating the injured.
"We have admitted harmed people, though don't have an altogether series yet, as well as we can't comment but government approval," he told Reuters, declining to give his name.
Buildings in China's reduction grown regions have been mostly thrown up with small regard for construction standards, creation them susceptible to earthquakes.
Footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed boulder-covered roadways, deserted cars as well as black smoke pouring from buildings.
"The hardest partial of the rescue right away is traffic. Roads have been blocked as well as rescuers have to climb the plateau to reach hard-hit villages," Xinhua quoted L! i Fuchun , an central from Luozehe, the town during the epicentre of the quake, as saying.
The death fee might rise as rescuers reach villages cut off by landslides, the headlines group said.
Many structures in the area have been built with sand as well as timber, creation them some-more disposed to collapse, the International Federation of Red Cross as well as Red Crescent Societies said.
"On the other hand, extricating people trapped in these structures might be simpler than from underneath concrete/brick homes, definition which there could be most some-more injuries proportionate to the series of deaths," it said.
In 2008, about 87,600 people were killed in the south-western range of Sichuan when the 7.8 bulk trembler hit. Many of the victims died in the rubble of homes as well as schools built but adequate steel reinforcement.
A 6.9 bulk trembler in April 2010 killed nearly 3,000 people in the remote partial of horse opera Qinghai province, harmful most of Yushu county, where most displaced by the mess still live in tents.
Quakes with an epicentre reduction than 70 km next the surface have been considered shoal as well as can means significant damage, even during lower magnitudes.
Christchurch, the largest city in New Zealand's South Island, is still recuperating from the 5-km-deep upheaval measuring 6.3 which killed 182 people in February 2011.
(Reporting by Michael Martina as well as Sabrina Mao; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Copyright 2012 Reuters
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