More than 60 people were injured in two aftershocks which hit the Qingchuan and Ningqiang counties in southwest China on Tuesday afternoon, local seismological and disaster relief authorities said.
A 5.4-magnitude aftershock hit Qingchuan in Sichuan Province at about 4:03 p.m. and another 5.7-magnitude tremor shook neighboring Ningqiang in Shaanxi Province, according to the China National Seismological Network.
Five injuries were reported by 7:20 p.m. on Tuesday in Guangyuan, Sichuan. The city is less than 100 kilometers from Ningqiang, according to the city seismological bureau.
Three were wounded in the Lizhou District of Guangyuan, and the other two injuries were reported at an economic development zone in the city.
Other details on the injuries were not immediately known.
Sixty-three people were injured -- six critically -- in Qingchuan, the county's quake relief headquarters said. The fresh tremors toppled more than 420,000 houses, cut off power, water supply and telecom in some townships in the county.
Qingchuan was also the epicenter of a 6.4-magnitude aftershock on Sunday afternoon, the strongest since May 12 when an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan's Wenchuan County. At least eight died after the violent aftershock.
The Shaanxi Provincial Seismological Bureau said by 8:08 p.m. on Tuesday nine more tremors were recorded following the Ningqiang aftershock.
The Ningqiang County quake relief headquarters advised residents not to live indoors. At the No. 1 Middle School, students were staying in tents on the playground. The county hospital said it had not received many injury reports, except an 80-year-old who had suffered bruises.
As of Tuesday noon, the death toll from the May 12 quake had increased by more than 2,100 to 67,183. Another 361,822 people were injured and 20,790 were missing, according to the Information Office of the State Council.
More than 45.61 million people were affected in the devastating quake, and about 15 million have been evacuated, the office said.
(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2008)