Eighteen people were injured after a magnitude-5 earthquake jolted southwest China's Yunnan Province Monday morning, local authorities have said.
The quake affected more than 48,000 residents in the counties of Tonghai and Huaning and the district of Jiangchuan, all administered by the city of Yuxi, damaging over 6,000 homes, according to a statement from the provincial civil affairs department.
The injured are being treated in hospital and are in a stable condition.
The epicenter, with a depth of 7 km, was monitored at 24.19 degrees north latitude and 102.71 degrees east longitude at 1:44 a.m. Monday, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.
"Stuff in my office started shaking. I heard a bang, and then the drinking fountain fell," said Chang Li, a nurse with the county's orthopedic hospital in Tonghai.
Chang rushed to her home and found her mother's legs buried in the debris of their home damaged by the quake. "Police and medical staff helped send her to the hospital," Chang said.
At the epicenter in the township of Sijie in Tonghai, hundreds of residents spent the night following the quake at a 16,000-square-meter shelter near the county government.
In Zhewan Village, one of the worst-hit villages in Sijie, 80 percent of homes were damaged, according to Gao Guangjin, a Party official with the village, adding that around 600 of the 830 residents in the village would spend Monday night in a total of 130 tents.
The provincial civil affairs department has allocated 200 tents, 600 beds and 1,000 quilts to quake-affected regions.
