Toll in China quake rises; 1,600 injured

There were 2,000 people left homeless who had to spend the night out in the freezing temperatures. “We are making housing arrangements for them today,” she said. The double tremors measured 5.0 and 6.2 on the Richter scale and struck at 7:31 p.m. (1131 GMT) and 7:38 p.m. (1138 GMT) Thursday on the border between Nin Glang Yi autonomous county in Yunnan province and Yanyuan county. A Civil Affairs Bureau official in Ninglang said on Saturday the casualty toll there remained at two and 1,383people injured.

The quakes affected 180,000 of the 220,000 residents in Ninglang, with about 50,000 left homeless. An official said 1,000 tents, more than 2,000 quilts and winter clothing had been supplied since the quakes, and most of the homeless provided for.

Temperatures dropped below freezing overnight in the mountainous region, some 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level. Ninglang and Yanyuan are largely populated by the Yi ethnic minority. Ninglang is so poor that 80 percent of its residents receive food relief.

The epicentre of the quakes was 27.3 degrees north latitude and 100.9 degrees east longitude, about half-way between the picturesque Yunnan town of Lijiang and the Xichang satellite launch centre in Sichuan province.Ninglang has been at the centre of a bout of seismic activity since early October when a tremor measuring 5.3 the region. A later quake measuring 5.2 hit the county on October 27 leaving 28 injured.

China entered a period of strong seismic activity in the early 1990swhich has led to hundreds of earthquakes in the western part of the nation, particularly around the edges of the Tibetan plateau. In February 1996, nearly 230 people were killed and 3,700 seriously injured in nearby Lijiang when a strong earthquake measuring 7.0 hit the region. Since most of the quakes were in remote mountainous regions casualties have been so far low.