More than 6,100 people, including soldiers, police officers, medical staff, and civilians, have participated in the rescue operation, saving at least 40 trapped people and sending more than 200 injured people to hospital.

The county needs 5,000 more tents for the homeless, said Zhao Jin, Party chief of Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Dehong, which administers Yingjiang.

Zhao said he had asked the provincial government for help.

The provincial and local governments have earmarked 23 million yuan (3.49 million U.S. dollars) in emergency aid to the quake-hit regions.

"We are now short of disinfectant, crucial for the post-quake epidemic prevention work," said Zhang Tao, president of the People's Hospital of Yingjiang.

About 60 injured people have to stay in tents and 74 others were transferred to other hospitals for surgery as part of the hospital's building was damaged and power supply has not been fully resumed there, Zhang said.

The quake first hit the county at 12:58 p.m., followed by seven aftershocks measuring up to 4.7 on the Richter scale.

Experts have not ruled out the possibility that stronger quakes might hit the region and they could not say that the first magnitude-5.8 tremor was the main quake.

Prior to the quake, more than 1,200 minor tremors were recorded in the region over the last two months.

Source: Xinhua

Editor: Xie Fang