Quake in China’s Yunnan province kills three, injures 28

A strong, shallow quake has rocked southwestern China near the border with Myanmar, killing at least three people and injuring at least 27 others.

The Yunnan province seismological bureau gave the magnitude of the Friday night quake as 6.4.

It said the tremor struck eight kilometres (five miles) below the surface northwest of the city of Dali.

The earthquake caused strong shaking around Dali, but Chinese news reports showed relatively little damage.

Relief efforts were underway, with the provincial authorities sending emergency rations and tents to the affected areas.

A second, 7.3-magnitude quake hit early Saturday the southern part of Qinghai province in central China, about 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) north of the first quake.

While there were no reports of casualties, roads were damaged in Maduo county.

Aftershocks continued into Saturday morning, with multiple smaller temblors recorded by China’s earthquake administration.

According to an official of the US Geological Survey, the two quakes were not related.

Shallow quakes often cause more damage, especially in populated areas.

Last year, a magnitude 5 earthquake in Yunnan killed four people and injured 23.

China’s worst earthquake in recent years struck the mountainous western portion of Sichuan province to the north of Yunnan in 2008, killing nearly 90,000 people.