China pushes on with quake rescue efforts

China continued rescue efforts on Saturday after an earthquake hit the country's southwest, killing one person, injuring hundreds and directly affecting two million people, state media said.

Map locating the epicentre of a 5.7 magnitude quake that struck in China's Yunnan province. China is continuing rescue efforts after an earthquake hit the country's southwest, killing one person, injuring hundreds and directly affecting two million people, state media has said.

A 5.7-magnitude quake struck Yao'an county, a mountainous area of remote Yunnan province, on Thursday evening at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles).

The quake displaced 250,000 people in several counties in Yunnan, the official Xinhua news agency said Saturday, revising the figure from the 400,000 evacuations reported earlier.

Nearly 22,000 people were sleeping in some 3,000 tents, according to the report, quoting Liang Yu, chief of Yao'an's civil affairs bureau.

Others stayed with relatives as rescue teams rushed in relief materials including blankets and food.

Authorities have recorded one fatality -- a 50-year-old woman who was buried in the debris of collapsed houses and died later in hospital from serious blood loss, according to Xinhua.

The quake, which was centred on a relatively sparsely populated area 98 kilometres (61 miles) northeast of the tourist city of Dali, saw more than 18,000 houses collapse and over 75,000 others damaged.

Over 1,000 soldiers and policemen, including about 300 from neighbouring Sichuan province, were helping residents to safety, Xinhua said in a previous report.

Last year in Sichuan, nearly 87,000 people were left dead or missing when a 8.0-magnitude earthquake shook the province in China's mountainous southwest.

The deadliest earthquake to strike China in over 30 years flattened entire cities and towns, destroying schools, hospitals, homes, buildings and factories in nearly 50,000 villages.