At least 400 people have been killed and thousands injured in an earthquake which hit Qinghai province in western China early on Wednesday.

The epicentre of the earthquake, which registered 6.9 on the Richter scale, was located at a depth of 10 kilometres in Yushu county, about 800 kilometres southwest of the provincial capital Xining. The region is sparsely populated, but many buildings are of very poor quality. Qinghai borders on Sichuan province which two years ago was hit by a major earthquake in which 68,000 people were killed.