Beijing, August 4 (RHC)-- At least 367 people have been killed and more than 1,400 injured after a massive earthquake hit southern China’s mountainous Yunnan Province. About 12,000 homes also collapsed in Ludian, which is a densely populated county located around 366 kilometers northeast of Yunnan’s capital, Kunming, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck at 4:30 p.m. (0830 GMT) at a depth of 10 kilometers. The epicenter of the quake was in the township of Longtoushan, 23 kilometers southwest of the city of Zhaotong, the Ludian county seat.

Rescue efforts were launched after the deadly tremor, with more than 2,500 troops dispatched to the disaster region. The Red Cross Society of China allocated quilts, jackets and tents for those left homeless by the quake, while Red Cross branches in Hong Kong, Macau and neighboring Sichuan province also sent relief supplies.

Sunday’s quake was the strongest to hit Yunnan in 14 years, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

In 1970, a magnitude-7.7 earthquake in Yunnan left at least 15,000 people dead and a magnitude-7.1 quake in the province killed over 1,400 in 1974. In September 2012, more than 80 people were killed in a series of quakes in the Yunnan region.