Two miners died and three other people were killed in a moderate earthquake that struck near an area of southwestern China devastated by a massive quake in May, the local government said Thursday.
The tremor killed two miners in Guangyuan city early Wednesday morning, a staffer at city government headquarters who would give only his surname Huo told AFP by phone.
"There are two dead and three injuries, that's the latest information," Huo said.
"The two dead were miners in Chaotian district."
The US Geological Survey said the tremor had a magnitude of 5.4 and struck 130 kilometres (80 miles) northeast of Mianyang, one of the towns rocked by the devastating May earthquake in Sichuan.
The 8.0-magnitude May 12 Sichuan earthquake was the worst in a generation in China, flattening entire towns and leaving more than 87,000 people dead or missing.
The official Xinhua news agency reported that seven miners were working in a coal pit in Guangyuan when the quake hit, but only five managed to escape.
Three people were injured in another district of the city as they fled their homes, Xinhua said.
The news agency said the tremor was an aftershock from the May earthquake.
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