China quake death toll hits 381: Over 1,891 injured

The death toll in an earthquake in China’s Yunnan province rose to 381 as rescue workers dug through shattered homes looking for survivors on Monday morning, 18 hours after the calamity struck the country’s southern province. At least 1,891 people were injured in the 6.5 magnitude quake. Rescuers were seen pulling out scores of survivors from the debris and whisking them to nearby hospitals and clinics by ambulances till early in the morning. About 12,000 homes collapsed in Ludian, a densely populated county located about 366 kilometers (277 miles) northeast of Yunnan’s capital, Kunming. The quake struck at 4:30pm on Sunday at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). Its epicenter was in Longtoushan township, 23 kilometers (14 miles) southwest of the city of Zhaotong, the Ludian county seat. China’s earthquake monitoring agency put the magnitude of Sunday’s quake at 6.5. However the US Geological Survey put the magnitude at 6.1 on the Richter scale. China’s official Xinhua news agency and state broadcaster CCTV put the number of missing people at three. They said 29,400 people have been evacuated from the quake area. The death toll was expected to rise, once rescuers reached remote communities to assess casualties, they feared.