BEIJING (AP) – An earthquake destroyed homes, killed at least three people and injured dozens on Thursday in Sichuan province in southwest China.
Rescue work was underway after the magnitude 6.0 earthquake.
It attacked at 4.33 a.m. at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) in Luxian, a county in Luzhou City, the official Xinhua news agency said. State broadcaster CCTV said 88 people were injured, three seriously, and 35 houses had collapsed.
The epicenter was about 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Chengdu, the provincial capital.
Xinhua reported that houses and walls collapsed on the way to the epicenter and that electricity had been suspended in much of Jiaming City. Residents were seen cleaning up.
Rescue workers went door-to-door with heavy rains looking for people in damaged homes in Fuji City to move them to temporary shelters, Xinhua said. Workers handed out moon cakes, a traditional delicacy for next week’s Fall Festival and other food at a shelter.
Fuji resident Lai Jianrong told Xinhua that he felt a slight tremor around four in the morning and that he ran out barefoot in his nightgown when the tremors became intense. “Some bricks fell off the wall and I didn’t dare re-enter,” the agency said.
More than 3,200 people have been relocated to 79 shelters, CCTV said.
Western China is regularly affected by earthquakes. A magnitude 7.9 earthquake shook nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan in May 2008, many of them in collapsed schools and other poorly constructed buildings.