An earthquake toppled more than 1,000 houses and apartment buildings in China’s southwest near the border with Myanmar, killing at least 25 people and injuring 250, the government said Friday.
Photos from the scene after the quake struck Thursday showed buildings that buckled, crushing their lower floors. Police, firefighters and soldiers rushed to the area to pull out people trapped in the rubble, including a man and girl stuck in the stairwell of a four-story building, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.
Parts of a supermarket and a hotel caved in, while sidewalks were lined with injured on blankets, being shielded from the sun by large vendor umbrellas.
The Civil Affairs Ministry said that 25 people had been killed in Yunnan province’s Yingjiang county. Another 250 people were injured, 134 of them in serious condition, the ministry said in a notice on its website.