Earthquakes force 100,000 to flee homes in southern China

A series of earthquakes rattled through southwestern China on Friday, killing at least 50, forcing 100,000 from their homes and reportedly leaving children trapped inside one collapsed rural school.

Two buses make their way across a road covered with fallen rocks after a series of earthquakes near Yunnan and Guizhou province

At around 11.19am local time a 5.7 magnitude quake struck on the mountainous border region between China’s Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

In the region around Yunnan’s Yiliang town, reportedly the worst hit area, at least 43 people were killed and 20,000 houses were damaged, local officials told the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Following the initial earthquake 16 aftershocks hit the area, including a 5.6 magnitude quake, Xinhua reported.

“We felt four or 5 aftershocks,” Zhu Meilian, a 40-year-old optician from Yiliang told the Daily Telegraph by mobile phone. “All the shops are closed around here. We have all gathered outside. We think we are going to spend the night outside today.”

Mr Zhu said rumours about further aftershocks had left locals nervous. “We heard there might be another wave at around 7pm,” he said.

Late on Friday afternoon there were reports that a school had collapsed in the town of Jiaokui, near Yiliang, leaving three dead. School children were still trapped inside, according Min Yunxiao, a reporter from China Newspaper Industry. 

Xinhua reported that rescue workers and relief teams were heading to the affected region, a remote area of rural China packed with craggy mountains that are prone to rockslides.

A local lawyer, who gave her name as Ms Hou, said the quake had “mainly [caused] loss of property not loss of life.”

Another Yiliang resident, an interior designer who gave his name as Mr Ye, said the situation could be more severe in rural areas.

Almost 90,000 people lost their lives and 5 million were forced from their homes following a 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, to the north of Yunnan province.

While China’s emergency response to the 7.9 magnitude earthquake earned praise, the government soon came under fire for failing to properly supervise building construction.

Many deaths in the May 12 quake were attributed to shoddily constructed buildings and thousands of children lost their lives when their flimsily built schools collapsed.

Aftershocks from the 2008 earthquake were felt in northern Yunnan, the setting for today’s quake.

“We have experience [of earthquakes] from that but when it actually happens [to you] there is nothing you can do,” said Mr Zhu, the optician.