Magnitude 5.1 earthquake hits southwestern China, 11 injured

Magnitude 5.1 earthquake hits southwestern China

BEIJING — A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck China’s southwestern province of Yunnan on Thursday, injuring 11 people and damaging many houses, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The quake struck at 12:56 p.m. (0456 GMT) in Chuxiong prefecture, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) northwest of the provincial capital of Kunming, the national earthquake monitoring center reported.

The U.S. Geographical Survey gave the quake’s magnitude as 5.0.

Xinhua cited a spokesman for the Yunnan Provincial Seismological Bureau as saying a large number of rural homes were badly damaged.

In May 2008, a massive 7.9-magnitude temblor struck Sichuan province just north of Yunnan, leaving 90,000 dead or missing and another 5 million homeless.