BEIJING // Rescue teams rushed to China's South-western Sichuan province after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake killed 22 people and injured more than 100, state media said today. Yesterday afternoon's quake killed 17 people in Sichuan and five others in the neighbouring province of Yunnan. Xinhua news agency said that heavy rains and the region's rugged terrain had hampered relief efforts. About 100 people in Sichuan and 35 in Yunnan were injured by the earthquake that hit 50km southeast of Panzhihua city in the South-western corner of Sichuan.
Nearly 1,000 houses were destroyed in Panzhihua and it is not yet known how many people were buried in the rubble. The China earthquake administration has sent teams and seismic experts to the quake-hit area. The Yunnan provincial civil affairs bureau and the Yunnan Red Cross Society sent 3,400 tents and 2,000 quilts. Elsewhere yesterday, an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale struck the North-western region of Xinjiang. No casualties were reported from the quake that hit the sparsely inhabited Tianshan mountains, although the tremor was felt in nearby counties and the city of Korla. On May 12, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake in northern Sichuan killed nearly 70,000 people and left 5 million homeless. The region has been hit by scores of aftershocks. * AP