Quake alert level for Zhaotong was raised earlier this year

The national earthquake monitoring centre said it raised the risk level for Zhaotong, where more than 400 people died in a tremor on Sunday, from a magnitude 6 to a magnitude 7 this year.

The higher alert came after academics warned last year a fault line running through the area had stored up a "tremendous amount" of energy, and nearby counties could be hit by a quake as strong as 7.4.

Zhaotong city sits along the Zhaotong fault, one of the main fault lines for northeastern Yunnan province. The city has been listed as a "key area" for monitoring for the past decade, said a staff member of the provincial earthquake administration.

The dangers were highlighted in research published last year by experts from the State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Prediction under the China Earthquake Administration. The area contained a "locked fault" segment, the academics wrote. Without regular seismic activity, a "tremendous amount" of energy can build up over time, possibly centuries, before being unleashed in a major earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey.

The quake that struck on Sunday afternoon was a magnitude 6.5, and came at a depth of 12km. More than 2,370 people were injured and 80,000 homes collapsed, according to Xinhua.

"The state authority raised the earthquake alert level for the region from magnitude 6 to magnitude 7 this year", Jiang Haikun, director of the earthquake prediction office at the China Earthquake Networks Centre, told the . Local authorities had been ordered to reinforce old buildings in the wake of the alert, the provincial earthquake administration said. But the region's heavy rain and the complex terrain were also to blame for the heavy casualty toll.