There have also been two quakes in Indonesia and New Zealand in the past 48 hours.

The quake in China struck in the early hours of Sunday morning local time (1800 GMT Saturday) in Ninglang county in Yunnan province.

There were no immediate reports of any injuries, although officials pointed out that it would take time for information to filter out from such a remote area.

A spokeswoman for the China State Seismology Board said the quake was an aftershock from two quakes in the same area last November, which killed five people and left tens of thousands homeless.

The area affected is mostly rural and extremely poor, and many of its inhabitants are still homeless following the earlier earthquakes.

The earthquake in eastern Indonesia struck late on Satuday local time (0427 GMT), and was registered at 5.9 on the Richter scale.

Its epicentre was in the Timor Sea, about 60 km south-east of Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara province.

It shook buildings in Kupang, and people ran outside in panic, but no casualties were reported.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 rattled New Zealand's capital, Wellington, on Sunday evening.

The quake hit at 2000 local time (0700 GMT) about 33 km north-west of Wellington, according to the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.