China quake death toll tops 400

A series of strong earthquakes have struck western China's Qinghai province killing at least 400 people and injuring more than 10,000.

They were killed when houses made of mud and wood collapsed. Officials say many more people are still trapped and they expect the toll to rise.

Paramilitary police were forced to use shovels to dig through the rubble in a Qinghai province township where most of the homes had been flattened.

With a lack of excavators and with most of the roads leading to the nearest airport damaged, equipment and rescuers are having a hard time reaching the area.

Downed phone lines, strong winds and frequent aftershocks have also hindered rescue efforts.

Workers are racing to release water from a reservoir in the disaster area where a crack had formed after the quake to prevent a flood.

The magnitude-6.9 quake struck in an area in the south of Qinghai province, near Tibet. It was centered on Yushu county, with a population of around 100,000.

The quake was one of six recorded in less than three hours.

The earthquake comes a little less than two years after a magnitude-7.9 quake in neighbouring Sichuan province left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.

That quake flattened several schools, killing thousands of students. Poor design, shoddy construction and the lax enforcement of building codes were found to be rampant.