Chinese houses collapse as quake rocks Sichuan

tauringhuang.

A moderate, magnitude 5.2 earthquake in Sichuan, south-west China, has brought down at least 100 homes, killing one person and injuring 11, officials say.

US earthquake monitors report that the tremor struck at 0537 local time (2137 GMT Saturday) 35km (20m) south-east of Suining, at a depth of 18.6km (11.6m).

Houses collapsed in the Moxi area of Suining, a city of 3.5 million people.

A magnitude 8 quake in Sichuan on 12 May 2008 left at least 87,000 people dead or missing.


  
Chinese state media said the authorities in Sichuan were "still not sure" if the latest quake was an aftershock from the earlier disaster.

China's top auditing authority, the National Audit Office, reported this week that reconstruction after the 2008 quake was nearly complete.

By the end of last October, 11 of 72 major reconstruction projects had been completed and 54 launched, it said.

A total of 480 of the 753 schools to be reconstructed had been completed and 238 were under construction.

Repair of 797,900 rural houses and 212,900 urban houses had also been completed, with repairs on 54,400 other homes in progress, according to the auditors.