Relief supplies reach quake-hit Yunnan

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The Ministry of Civil Affairs has ordered the immediate delivery of five thousand tents and other relief materials to the quake-hit area of Yunnan Province in the southwest China. Rescue work is continuing and residents have been relocated to safer places.

Soldiers pitch tents for the quake-afflicted people. More than 300 people were injured and more than 10,000 houses collapsed in a 6.0-magnitude earthquake that hit southwest China's Yunnan Province Thursday evening,  local authorities said. (Xinhua Photo)

The Yunnan provincial government has distributed tents, medicine and food to local residents in quake-hit Yao'an county.

The magnitude 6 earthquake struck on Thursday evening, killing at least one person and injuring more than 300 others.

Over ten thousand houses have collapsed and more than thirty thousand others are damaged. People there have now been relocated.

More than 1,000 troops,including some 300 dispatched by the neighboring Sichuan Province have been helping residents move to safer places.

The soldiers also helped to set up dozens of tents at a school for temporary settlement. Medical treatment is also being given there.

"We have treated two patients and we're continuing to searching for other injured people." Fire-fighters are eliminating dangers posed by damaged buildings. "We have begun to demolish unsafe buildings and transfer the valuables inside the buildings to reduce residents losses."

Several aftershocks have occurred in Yao'an and another neighboring county. And rain is expected to hamper rescue work in the following days.

Government departments are stepping up monitoring to avoid secondary disasters.