China quake kills 38 and damages quarter million homes

BEIJING (Reuters) - An earthquake that hit China's southwest killed 38 people, Xinhua news agency said on Monday, two days after the most recent in a series of tremors to hit the region.

The quake hit the mountainous border between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, near an area still reeling from the May 12 quake which killed at least 70,000 people.

The region has suffered hundreds of smaller but still serious quakes since then.

Saturday's quake injured 467 people and forced 152,000 to flee. Over 250,000 homes were damaged, Xinhua said.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 5.7, while Xinhua said it measured 6.1. A slightly smaller aftershock hit around 24 hours later, but there were no immediate reports of further damage.

The government was rushing disaster relief to the affected areas, including thousands of tents and blankets.

Sichuan province, known for its pandas and fiery cuisine, has struggled to rebuild after the May disaster, which left 10 million people homeless.

(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)