An earthquake in a sparsely populated region of southwest China killed one person, injured hundreds and flattened more than 10,000 houses overnight.

A government relief official in the Yao'an county, a mountainous area of the picturesque Yunnan province where the quake hit, told the AFP news agency that one person had died and 328 were injured.

The US Geological Survey said the moderate 5.7-magnitude quake struck at 7:19pm (11.19 GMT) on Thursday at a depth of 6.2 miles. The quake was centred 61 miles northeast of the city of Dali.

It was followed by eight aftershocks, driving residents outdoors for fear of greater damage, China's Xinhua news agency said.

More than 10,000 houses collapsed and 30,000 others were damaged in six counties. In a statement, the local government said that 75,000 buildings had been damaged.

Provincial authorities rushed thousands of tents, quilts and other aid supplies to the relief agency headquarters in Yao'an county. More than 600 police officers were sent to the earthquake zone.

About 30 people suffered severe injuries and were being treated at a hospital in Yao'an.

Last May nearly 87,000 people were left dead or missing after a massive earthquake (magnitude 8.0) shook the Sichuan province in China's mountainous southwest.

The deadliest earthquake to strike China in more than 30 years flattened entire cities and towns, while destroying schools, hospitals, homes and factories in nearly 50,000 villages.

About 7,000 schools collapsed in that quake as neighbouring buildings stood intact, leading to the death of thousands of children and causing anger among grieving parents who blamed poor construction and corruption among officials.

Yunnan province, where Thursday night's quake hit, is next to Sichuan, and lies on China's southern border with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Yao'an county, the quake's epicentre, has a population of 207,900 from 23 separate ethnic groups, according to the county government's website.

The spectacular scenery and the ethnic diversity has led China's government to promote the relatively unspoilt region as a tourist destination in recent years.

Southwest China as a whole is part of the boundary between two of the Earth's tectonic plates, the Indian and Asian, whose constant collision has created the Himalayan mountains and Tibetan plateau.

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