Two earthquakes kill at least 64 in Yunnan's Yiliang county

At least 64 people were killed and 715 injured when two strong earthquakes rocked Yiliang county in Yunnan , southwest China, yesterday.

The death toll in the mountainous region is expected to climb, with thousands of houses crushed by rockslides that occurred after the quakes.

Premier Wen Jiabao is on his way to inspect the quake zone, which lies on the border of Yunnan and Guizhou .

The epicentre of the first quake, which struck at 11.19am with a magnitude of 5.7, was 15 kilometres from Yiliang's county centre. The second quake, which struck at 12.16pm with a magnitude of 5.6, was centred five kilometres away.

Yiliang, where most people live in a valley surrounded by high mountains, is about 400 kilometres from Kunming , the provincial capital.

Xinhua reported that about 700,000 people in Zhaotong's Yiliang county, Zhaoyang district and Daguan county as well as in 24 other rural townships were affected.

Tremors were felt in Chongqing and Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu .