64 killed in China Earthquake

The epicentre of the quake was traced at Luozehe town,about 33 km away from the city centre of Zhaotong. Its depth was about 14 km.

The death toll may rise further as rescuers are yet to reach some of the quake-hit villages blocked off by landslides and falling rocks,officials with Zhaotong City,Yunnan Province told the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Power and communications were cut-off in the worst-hit areas. It was followed by more than 60 tremors,with four above 4.0 on the Richter scale.

Sixty-four people have been confirmed dead and 715 others were injured in the quakes,Xinhua quoted officials from the Yunnan Province8217;s civil affairs department as saying.

Forty nine people were killed in Yiliang alone while one death was reported from urban Zhaotong area,a provincial civil affairs department official said. Over 150 others were injured.

The quake has disrupted the lives of over 700,000 people in Yiliang and Daguan counties as well as Zhaoyang District,which are all under the administration of Zhaotong,the city8217;s civil affairs bureau reported.

So far,more than one lakh people have been evacuated. More than 20,000 houses were damaged or had collapsed.

In Guizhou,the quakes have also toppled three homes and damaged 1,540 more,slightly injuring one person,according to the provincial civil affairs department.

8220;The hardest part of the rescue now is traffic,8221; said Li Fuchun,head of Luozehe township.

8220;Roads are blocked and rescuers have to climb the mountains to reach hard-hit villages8221;.

Li said the number of casualties might be high but it is impossible to assess until the rescuers reach the hard-hit villages. Big rocks,some as tall as four metres,tumbled down the mountain slopes and crashed onto the roads in Luozehe triggering landslides.

A settlement of a zinc mine in Luozehe was seriously damaged. More than two dozen mining families have been evacuated out of their damaged houses.

8220;It is scary. My brother was killed by falling rocks. The aftershocks struck again and again. We are so scared,8221; said miner Peng Zhuwen.

Retired miner Liu Linde,62,said when the quake struck,he was thrown three metres off the road.

8220;When I returned,the gate of my house had collapsed. Cracks appeared everywhere on the walls,8221; Liu said.

The quake-stricken area is relatively populous,which was one of the main reasons behind the heavy casualties,noted Huangfu Gang,director of Yunnan8217;s seismological bureau.

The population density of the area is estimated at 205 people per square kilometre,nearly twice the figure for the whole province,which is 117 people per square kilometre,Huangfu said.

Meanwhile,the epicentres of the two strong quakes were located very close to the county seat of Yiliang.

He also said that homes and buildings in the relatively poor region were not built strongly enough to resist the destructive power of a violent earthquake.

Moreover,the mountainous terrain makes the quake more devastating,with landslides easily triggered,the expert added.

Zhaotong,with a population of about 5.6 million,is prone to geological disasters.

A magnitude-5.6 earthquake in 2003 killed four people and injured 594 in the county of Ludian.

In 2010,rain-triggered landslides left 45 dead or missing in the county of Qiaojia.