A magnitude 6.6 earthquake in southwestern China has left 160 dead and more than 5,700 people injured. The Chinese army has stepped in to deal with the debris of collapsed houses and public building as death toll continues to rise. The disaster has struck the country’s south-western Sichuan province at 00:02 AM GMT (8:02 AM local time) on Saturday, at a depth of around 13 kilometers (7,6 miles), according to China’s Xinhua news agency. China’s Earthquake Administration has reported that over 1.5 million people have been affected by the earthquake and aftershocks. It has been reported that a bus transporting 17 soldiers to the earthquake area crashed into a river from a cliff. One of the soldiers died in hospital, while five more were seriously injured.
