Two tremors with a magnitude of 5.6 strike China, killing at least 80 people and causing widespread destruction.

he 5.6 magnitude quake, which hit the border of southwestern Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, also left hundreds of people injured and forced the evacuation of 100,000 residents from their homes.

Around 30,000 houses collapsed or were damaged during the tremors which also sent boulders cascading across roads.

Local authorities have sent rescue teams to help with 6,000 tents and blankets released.

“Children who have survived this will be frightened and exhausted. We are especially worried about children who may have been separated from their parents during the earthquake, as more aftershocks are expected to hit the area,” said Pia MacRae of Save the Children in China.

The US Geological Survey said the first quake struck at 11.20am local time at a depth of around 10km (six miles), with a second quake around an hour later.

Hadrest hit was Yiliang County, where all but one of the deaths occurred.

Local television footage showed  the area strewn with debris and rocks, and people gathering on the streets in panic.

Some described how people ran out of buildings screaming as the quake hit.

“I was walking on the street when I suddenly felt the ground shaking beneath me. People started rushing outside screaming, it still scares me to think of it now,” posted one user on Sina Weibo, a microblogging service similar to Twitter.

Another Weibo user who was driving when the quake hit said he felt the road shake beneath him and struggled to keep hold of the steering whee

In Luozehe, a town in Yiliang near a zinc mine, residents and state media said boulders hurtled off hillsides and houses collapsed.

“It is scary. My brother was killed by falling rocks. The aftershocks struck again and again. We are so afraid,” miner Peng Zhuwen told the Xinhua news agency.

Francis Markus, Red Cross spokesman for East Asia. said 2,000 quilts, the same number of jackets and 500 tents were being rushed to the area.

The first quake was also felt in neighbouring Sichuan Province. The China Earthquake Networks Centre put its magnitude at 5.7 and said it struck at a depth of 14km (nine miles).

Southwest China is prone to earthquakes. In May 2008, an 8.0 magnitude quake rocked Sichuan and parts of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, killing tens of thousands and flattening swathes of the province.

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