China earthquake and aftershocks injure 300, 3 dead: Xinhua*

By Nick Macfie
Reuters
Sunday, June 3, 2007; 11:25 AM

BEIJING (Reuters) - An earthquake hit a tea-making city in southwest
China on Sunday, bringing down houses and killing at least three people,
one a 4-year-old, and injuring 300, Xinhua news agency said.

The quake shook the city of Pu'er and the surrounding area in
mountainous Yunnan province in the early morning when most people were
asleep, the agency said. It was followed by 55 aftershocks.

Tremors were felt 200 km (120 miles) away to the north and south.

"The dead included a 4-year-old boy, who was sleeping with his mother
when the earth-built walls of their house collapsed in the quake and
buried him and half of the body of his mother," Xinhua said. "The mother
was rescued but the boy was killed."

Xinhua earlier told a Hong Kong television station a 4-year-old girl was
among the dead. It was not clear if the two child victims were one and
the same.

Power was cut to the city and the only communications possible were by
mobile phone, a local official said. The quake forced the evacuation of
120,000 residents, Xinhua quoted a provincial civil affairs department
official as saying.

Some mostly mud-and-brick houses had collapsed and roads were destroyed,
state TV said. Water and power supplies were damaged.

The quake hit at 5:34 a.m. (2134 GMT Saturday) and one Pu'er office
worker named Li said it had woken her in her fifth-floor apartment.

"I tried to get up but the tremor was too strong. It cracked the window
panes," she told Reuters.

She was called to her office, where she saw soldiers and armed police
rushing down the street as rescue operations began.

President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu had
asked provincial government officials "to mobilize all resources
available to treat the injured and minimize the loss of lives and
property," Xinhua said.

Coal mines in the area were ordered to suspend operations and evacuate
all workers.

The Pu'er city government had allocated 1 million yuan ($131,000) for
relief, Xinhua said. The provincial civil affairs department was sending
2,000 tents, 2,000 quilts and 2,000 items of clothing to the stricken area.

Ning'er county, covering an area of 3,670 sq km (1,400 sq miles) within
the city limits, has a population of 190,000.

Pu'er, home of the tea of the same name, lies near to the border with
Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. The epicenter of the quake was 23.0 degrees
north and 101.1 degrees east.

Earthquakes are common in China. In August last year, a 5.1 magnitude
quake rocked Yunnan, killing two people.