Earthquake struck Yunnan in China

On Thursday 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck southwest China's Yunnan province near the border with Myanmar has toppled 583 houses at Yingjiang county in the province around noon and left 201 people injured, 33 seriously, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, adding that at least 22 people were killed. The tremor triggered a power outage but telecommunication service remained normal in Yingjiang, said Wei Gang, head of the county government.According to the witnesses, people were buried under debris and part of a supermarket and a hotel caved in.Li Shaobo, chief of Yingjiang Education Bureau, said two students died in the earthquake while another one suffered serious injuries.

The earthquake, the largest of more than 1,200 minor tremors over the last two months in the region, is believed to have caused serious damage and loss, Liu Jie, a director with the earthquake forecast department, said, adding that the epicentre of the quake was stated to at the depth of 10 km.Three aftershocks, measuring up to 4.7 degrees on the Richter Scale jolted the county within 10 minutes of the first tremor.

China has been experiencing heavy quakes during the past few years.
Hundreds of people were killed in earthquakes in Sichuan province in 2009 and Qinghai last year.Eight earthquakes registering higher than 5 magnitude on the Richter Scale hit the county between 1991 and 2008 which was located about 700 km west of provincial capital Yunnan, Chen Jianmin, director of China Earthquake Administration said.Nearly 1,000 soldiers have been sent to join the rescue operation. Provincial governor Qin Guangrong called upon relevant authorities to save injured people, evacuate disaster-hit residents and calculate casualties and economic losses.The provincial disaster-relief and civil affairs authorities have launched an emergency response plan.The National Committee of Disaster Reduction and Ministry of Civil Affairs have dispatched 5,000 tents, 10,000 quilts, 10,000 clothes and other materials to the quake-hit region.Media agencies