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Saturday, July 11, 2009 BEIJING: More than 400,000 people were being evacuated Friday after an earthquake hit southwest China, killing one person, injuring hundreds and flattening more than 18,000 homes, officials said.A government relief official in Yao'an county, a mountainous area of remote Yunnan province, said one person had died and 328 had been injured.The US Geological Survey said the 5.7-magnitude quake struck at 7:19 pm (1119 GMT) Thursday at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) in Yunnan province.The quake was centred on a relatively sparsely populated area 98 kilometres (61 miles) east-northeast of the tourist city of Dali.Several aftershocks followed, driving residents outdoors into the warm night for fear of greater damage, Xinhua said.The USGS reported a 5.0-magnitude aftershock just after 5 pm (0900 GMT) on Friday.More than 18,000 houses collapsed and over 75,000 others were damaged in six counties of Yunnan, with 30 people suffering serious injuries, according to Xinhua which cited local officials.
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