An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hit China's southwestern province of Yunnan on Thursday, injuring 27 people, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The tremor hit Yongning township in Ninglang -- populated by the Yi ethnic minority and a popular tourist destination -- at 5:10 am and knocked down 185 houses, Xinhua said.
More than 600 cows and sheep were missing and economic losses were estimated at $14.5 million, it said.
An official at the State Seismological Bureau in Beijing confirmed the size and the time of the quake but gave no further details.
Ruggedly mountainous Yunnan, neighboring Sichuan to the north and Tibet to the west are frequently shaken by earthquakes.
In April, an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale near the Yunnan town of Shidian killed one person, injured scores and destroyed 30,000 houses.
And in February, three people died and 20,000 left homeless when a remote area of Sichuan was hit by a quake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale.
It was not immediately clear what the impact of Thursday's earthquake was on the base metals industry in ore-rich Yunnan, traders and smelter officials said - BEIJING (Reuters)
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