BEIJING: Six people were killed and 20,000 homes were damaged when a series of earthquakes, one of them measuring magnitude 5.7, struck southwest China on Friday, state media reported.
The largest quake struck on the border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces at around 11 am (0300 GMT) at a depth of 14 kilometres (nine miles), the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the China Earthquake Networks Centre.
The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the largest quake at 5.6 and said it struck at a depth of 10 kilometres.
State broadcaster CCTV said at least six people were killed in the disaster, all of them in Yunnan.
An official reached by telephone in Guizhou told AFP no casualties had been reported in the province.
The shaking prompted people to run out of buildings, Xinhua reported, citing bloggers on the popular Twitter-like site Weibo.
The largest quake, which was also felt in neighbouring Sichuan Province, was followed by several other tremors.