Strong quake in China topples thousands of homes, kills at least 367

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Yan Jiajia, 2, sits on her electric car, which her father dug out of the rubble of their quake-damaged house in Longtoushan township. (AFP/Getty Images)

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A villager waits on the road that links Hongshiyan village to the town of Baogulao in Qiaojia county in southwest China’s Yunnan province. (AFP/Getty Images)

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A woman throws belongings to her husband in Longtoushan township of Ludian county in southwest China’s Yunnan province. (AFP/Getty Images)

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A truck makes its way along a narrow road that links Hongshiyan village to the town of Baogulao township in Qiaojia county in southwest China’s Yunnan province. (AFP/Getty Images)

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A rescue worker carries relief supplies to a remote village in Ludian county in southwest China’s Yunnan province. (AFP/Getty Images)

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An aerial photo shows buildings toppled by a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in the town of Longtoushan in Ludian County of Zhaotong, southwest China’s Yunnan Province. (Xue Yubin / Associated Press)

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Rescuers carry an injured earthquake victim in Zhaotong, southwest China’s Yunnan province. More than 367 people died and nearly 2,000 were injured when a strong earthquake hit. (STR / AFP/Getty Images)

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Earthquake survivors wait to be evacuated in southern China’s Yunnan province. (GREG BAKER / AFP/Getty Images)

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In this photo taken by cellphone and released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, men look for survivors after an earthquake in Ludian County of Zhaotong City in southwest China’s Yunnan province. (Hu Chao / Associated Press)

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Broken tiles sit scattered on the ground after a 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit the area. The quake struck seven miles west-northwest of the town of Wenping at a relatively shallow depth of six miles. (STR / AFP / Getty Images)

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Rescuers carry an injured child on a stretcher after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit the area. (STR / AFP / Getty Images)

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Chinese rescuers transport an injured resident. At least 175 people were killed and 1,400 injured after a strong earthquake hit southwest China’s mountainous Yunnan province, state media said. (STR / AFP / Getty Images)

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Residents run through debris from a landslide during aftershocks following an 6.1-magnitude earthquake. (STR / AFP / Getty Images)

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Residents gather near damaged houses following an earthquake in an area of Ludian county in Zhaotong in southwest China’s Yunnan province. (STR / AFP / Getty Images)

By Associated Press

Aug. 3, 2014 11:30 AM PT

Reporting from Beijing —

A strong earthquake in southern China’s Yunnan province toppled thousands of homes on Sunday, killing at least 367 people and injuring more than 1,881.

About 12,000 homes collapsed in Ludian, a densely populated county located around 277 miles northeast of Yunnan’s capital, Kunming, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The magnitude-6.1 quake struck at 4:30 p.m. at a depth of 6 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was in Longtoushan township, 14 miles southwest of the city of Zhaotong, the Ludian county seat.

Ma Liya, a resident of Zhaotong, told Xinhua that the streets there were like a “battlefield after bombardment.” She added that her neighbor’s house, a new two-story building, had toppled.

At least 122 of the dead were in Ludian, with an additional 1,300 people injured there, Xinhua reported. It said an additional 49 people died, one was missing and 102 were injured in Qiaojia county, which has a population of 580,000.

News reports said rescuers were still trying to reach victims in more remote towns Sunday night.

Photos on the Chinese social media site Weibo showed rescuers searching through flattened buildings and people injured amid toppled bricks.

The homes that collapsed in Ludian, which has a population of about 429,000, were mostly old brick houses, Xinhua said, adding that electricity and telecommunications were cut off in the county.

The Red Cross Society of China has allocated 2,000 quilts, 2,000 jackets and 200 tents to aid those made homeless by the quake, while Red Cross branches in Hong Kong, Macau and neighboring Sichuan province have also sent relief supplies, Xinhua said.

The mountainous region where the quake occurred is largely agricultural, with farming and mining the top industries, and is prone to earthquakes.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the quake was the strongest to hit Yunnan in 14 years.

In 1970, a magnitude-7.7 earthquake in Yunnan killed at least 15,000 people, and a magnitude-7.1 quake in the province killed more than 1,400 in 1974. In September 2012, 81 people died and 821 were injured in a series of quakes in the Yunnan region.

In May 2008, a powerful quake in Sichuan province left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.