BEIJING — A strong earthquake that hit a sparsely populated, mountainous area of western China killed at least five people and injured 54 others, officials said on Sunday. The injured included schoolchildren in a stampede. The US Geological Survey said the magnitude-5.9 quake hit on Saturday about 30 km from the county of Kangding in Sichuan province. China's seismological agency put the magnitude at 6.3. One person was also missing as of Sunday afternoon, according to a statement from the Ganzi prefecture government, which oversees Kangding. The four dead included a woman in her 70s who was struck by a falling window pane, the official Xinhua News Agency and state broadcaster CCTV 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 damage, the Sichuan government information office said. Western China is regularly hit by earthquakes, and reports said Saturday's quake could be felt in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. — AP
