BEIJING // Survivors of a series of earthquakes that killed 81 people and injured more than 800 in a mountainous area of south-western China were desperately waiting for more aid to arrive yesterday as jolting aftershocks kept fears high and hindered rescue efforts.
The latest victim was a 2-year-old child who was hit by a falling wall as an aftershock struck Saturday night, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
The first earthquakes struck on Friday in a region of small farms and mines near the border between Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, where some of China's poorest people live.
They toppled thousands of homes and sent boulders cascading across roads, and authorities evacuated more than 200,000 villagers.
The area was still being jolted by aftershocks yesterday, raising fears of more injuries and fatalities.
Footage from China Central Television showed rescuers and sniffer dogs running past steep slopes because of the risk of fist-sized stones tumbling down. It also showed an ambulance stuck in stones and debris.
Almost all of the 110,000 people who live in Yiliang county's Jiaokui town, about 3 kilometres from the epicentre of one of the earthquakes, had evacuated, but many had no shelter and were waiting for supplies, a town official said by telephone.
