A STRONG earthquake that hit a sparsely populated, mountainous area of western China killed at least five people and injured 54 others, officials said yesterday. The injured included schoolchildren in a stampede.

    The magnitude-6.3 quake hit about 30 kilometers from the county of Kangding in Sichuan Province on Saturday.

    One person was also missing as of yesterday afternoon, according to a statement from the Ganzi prefecture government, which oversees Kangding.

    The five dead included a woman in her 70s who was struck by a falling window pane, Xinhua News Agency said, citing Chen Yunbing, a doctor at the region’s Ganzi People’s Hospital.

    A stampede at a primary school in Tagong town during the quake injured 42 children, according to Xinhua.

    Thirty homes collapsed and 2,630 others suffered serious damages, the Sichuan government’s information office said.

    Saturday’s quake could be felt in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu on the plains below the Himalayan foothills.  (SD-Agencies)