Beijing: A strong earthquake hit a tea-making city in southwest China on Sunday, killing at least two people, injuring 200, causing houses to collapse and damaging roads, Xinhua news agency and a local official said. The quake shook the city of Pu'er and the surrounding area in mountainous Yunnan province in the early morning when most people were asleep. There have since been 55 aftershocks. Tremors were felt 200 km (120 miles) away to the north and south, Xinhua said.

Power was cut to the city and the only communications possible were by cell phone, a local official said. "The earthquake has left two people dead, 15 seriously injured and 192 slightly hurt in (Ning'er) county," Xinhua said, citing sources at rescue work headquarters. Some houses near the county collapsed and roads are destroyed. The communication network, and water and power supplies to the county, are also affected.

The quake hit at 5.34 a.m. (2134 GMT Saturday) and one Pu'er office worker named Li said it woke her in her fifth-floor apartment. "I tried to get up but the tremor was too strong. It cracked the window panes," she told Reuters. She was called to her office from where she said she had seen soldiers and armed police rushing down the street as rescue operations got under way. Many residents had been moved to safety, she said.

The Pu'er city government had allocated 1 million yuan ($131,000) for relief. The provincial civil affairs department was sending 2,000 tents, 2,000 quilts and 2,000 items of clothing to the stricken area, Xinhua said.

Ning'er county, covering an area of 3,670 sq km (1,400 sq miles) within the city limits, has a population of 190,000. Pu'er, home of the tea of the same name, lies near to the border with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. The epicentre of the quake was 23.0 degrees north and 101.1 degrees east.

Pu'er tea dates back to the early Tang Dynasty (618-763). Over the centuries it was used as a form of currency in China and was an important international trading item. Earthquakes are common in China. In August last year, a 5.1 magnitude quake rocked Yunnan, killing two people. In December, tremors were felt in Hong Kong and southern China when two earthquakes struck southern Taiwan.