Quakes kill at least 67 in mountainous area of China

Associated Press

BEIJING

Twin earthquakes and a spate of aftershocks struck southwestern China on Friday, toppling thousands of houses and sending boulders cascading across roads. At least 67 people were killed and hundreds injured in the remote mountainous area, and more than 100,000 residents were evacuated.

Damage was preventing rescuers from reaching outlying towns, and communications were disrupted after the midday quakes hit along the borders of Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, a rural region where some of China’s poorest people live.

The first 5.6-magnitude quake struck just before 11:30 a.m. and was followed tby an equally strong quake shortly after noon, joined by dozens of aftershocks. Though of moderate strength, the quakes were shallow, which often causes more damage.

Hardest hit was Yiliang County, where all but one of the deaths occurred, according to the Yunnan provincial government’s official website. An additional 730 people in the area were injured. Yiliang’s high population density, shoddy building construction and propensity for landslides were blamed for the relatively high death toll.

Though quakes occur in the area frequently, buildings in rural areas and China’s fast-growing smaller cities and towns often are constructed poorly. A magnitude-7.9 quake that hit Sichuan province, just north of Yunnan, in 2008 killed nearly 90,000 people, with many of the deaths blamed on poorly built structures, including schools.