At least four people were killed and over 100 others injured in the 5.7-magnitude earthquake which has struck a remote mountainous area in southwest China yesterday, leaving a trail of destruction.

Three residents have been reported dead in the county of Ninglang in Yunnan province and another one in the neighbouring Yanyuan county in Sichuan province.

As of late last night, 102 people have been found injured. Among them, 20 were in serious conditions, according to the Langcang county government.

The 5.7-magnitude quake struck the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces at 3:59 pm (local time) yesterday, followed by a 3.3-magnitude aftershock two minutes later, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre.

The epicentre was located at the border area between Ninglang and Yanyuan, where the Yi ethnic group live.

The quake was strongly felt in Ninglang, and local authorities have sent rescuers and 1,100 tents, 3,000 quilts and 2,000 cotton-padded clothes to the quake-stricken area.

The quake struck at one of the regions in Yunnan that has high frequency of destructive earthquakes, said Mr Zhang Jianguo, director of the quakeproof institute with the Yunnan provincial seismological bureau.

It was a tectonical earthquake with a complicated geological structure in its epicentre area, which had several faulted structures extending to various directions, he said.

Telecommunications networks and power supply were affected by the quake in some regions of the quake-hit area. The Yunnan Provincial Seismological Bureau has dispatched a team to the area to calculate the losses.

A spokesman with the Yanyuan county government told Xinhua that the quake was not strongly felt in the county seat, but many houses in the countryside collapsed.

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