Earthquake injures 22 in China

Twenty-two people were injured when a shallow earthquake struck southwest China and shook the popular resort city of Lijiang.

According to the Yunnan Seismological Bureau, two of the victims of the Sunday afternoon incident in the Ninglang county suffered serious injuries.

The earthquake occurred near the border between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which put the magnitude at 5.4 and the depth at 38 kilometers.

The provincial seismological administration said there were no reports of damage to the houses yet, but the state news agency, Xinhua said a search and rescue team of 60 people had been dispatched to the epicentre.

The China Earthquake Network Centre later measured the magnitude at 5.5 with a depth of 10 kilometers.

The epicentre was 115 kilometers from Lijiang in Yunnan province, the USGS reported.

China is regularly hit by earthquakes, especially in its western and southwestern mountainous regions.

Last September, three people were killed and dozens injured when a shallow earthquake struck Sichuan province and tens of thousands of homes were damaged.

A magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan in 2008 killed more than 80,000 people.

Among them were thousands of children who died when poorly constructed school buildings collapsed, but the government was unable to release an exact death toll as the problem took on a political dimension.