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At least 367 dead in southwest China quake

– ‘Help those alive first’ –

State media announced that 2,500 troops had been dispatched to quake-hit areas late Sunday, joining a team of more than 300 police and firefighters from Zhaotong city, the capital of the prefecture.

Equipment brought to the area included life detection instruments and excavating tools.

The province also sent 392 rescuers and sniffer dogs to aid the relief operation. Xinhua said more than 7,000 rescuers had been dispatched as President Xi Jinping called for “all-out efforts.”

A spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the secretary-general was “saddened by the loss of life.”

“He offers his condolences to the Chinese government and the families of those killed, and his deepest sympathies to those who were injured or otherwise affected in this disaster,” the spokesman added.

The White House National Security Council also offered condolences, and said the United States “stands ready to assist.”

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those that lost their lives, those injured or displaced, and all the people of China on this difficult day,” spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.

Heavy rain was posing a challenge to rescuers.

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The USGS had warned that people in the region lived in structures “highly vulnerable to earthquake shaking.”

Complicating matters, the road leading to Longtoushan was damaged in a landslide before the quake.

Chinese state media put the magnitude of the first earthquake at 6.5, citing the China Earthquake Networks Center.

Southwest China lies where the Eurasian and Indian plates meet and is prone to earthquakes. In 1974, a 6.8-magnitude quake in the same area killed more than 1,500 people.

In September 2012, 80 people were killed when twin earthquakes struck the mountainous border area of Yunnan and Guizhou.

An 8.0-magnitude quake in May 2008 rocked Sichuan, which neighbours Yunnan, killing tens of thousands of people and flattening swathes of the province.

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