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Hundreds injured in south China quake

BEIJING
Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:02pm EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - A 6.0 magnitude earthquake that shook southwest China's Yunnan province on Thursday has killed one person and injured 325 people, Xinhua news agency said.

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More than 400,000 people had to be relocated or evacuated as thousands of homes were damaged by the quake and a series of aftershocks, the agency said.

The quake struck at 7:19 p.m. in Guantun township, in a mountainous area about 200 km (125 miles) northwest of the provincial capital Kunming.

The U.S. Geological Service estimated the severity of the quake at 5.7 at a depth of about 10 km (6 miles).

Strong tremors were felt in several cities across Yunnan province, with a moderate aftershock measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale on Friday afternoon.

The area has regularly suffered earthquakes and aftershocks since an 8.0 quake in neighboring Sichuan in May 2008 killed about 80,000 people.

China's ministries of finance and civil affairs on Friday allocated 38 million yuan ($5.6 million) to the quake-hit area.

($1 = 6.832 Yuan)

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby and Jacqueline Wong, editing by Sugita Katyal)



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