MOSCOW, August 3 (RIA Novosti) – The death toll in the earthquake in southwest China has grown to 150 and nearly 100 others have been injured, China’s official Xinhua news agency has reported.
The 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit China’s southwestern province of Yunnan on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said. The earthquake shocks were registered at 4.30 p.m. local time (08:30 GMT).
The earthquake struck at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to the US Geological Survey.
The China Earthquake Networks Center said the magnitude was 6.5.
State broadcaster CCTV reported earlier that at least 26 people were killed and another 79 were injured.
The quake epicenter was 11 kilometers from Wenping and 29 kilometers from Zhaotong.
The Yunnan province's Ludian county, home to over 265,000 people, has been most affected. Several buildings have been ruined and power lines have been damaged in the area.
Local authorities have requested humanitarian aid for those affected by the quake, which has been the strongest to hit Yunnan in the past 14 years.
China’s most powerful earthquake in 30 years occurred on May 12, 2008, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, killing at least 70,000 people and displacing 10 million. Direct economic losses from the quake have exceeded $150 billion.
