Quakes kill 4 people in southwest China

Two earthquakes have killed at least four people and damaged houses in southwestern China, authorities and state media say.

Fourteen other people were injured, at least one seriously, state broadcaster CCTV said in an online report. All of the dead and injured were in Baoxing county in Sichuan province.

Those killed were hit by falling rocks, the earthquake relief headquarters in Ya’an city said, adding the injured were sent to hospitals for treatment.

A magnitude 6.1 quake struck on Wednesday at a depth of 17 kilometres (in Ya’an, about 110km southwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, the China Earthquake Network Center said.

A magnitude 4.5 quake followed three minutes later, Xinhua News Agency said.

The Sichuan fire department said some houses were damaged and more than 1400 rescuers were headed to the area.

The Southwest Railway Authority said some sections of track were closed, causing delays to passenger trains.

China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan.