CHINA QUAKE DEATH TOLL COULD TOP 300.

Byline: Jennifer Lin Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

A severe earthquake in mountainous southwest China crumbled houses of mud brick, killing 240 people, seriously injuring 14,000, and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless in freezing weather, officials here said Sunday.

The death toll was expected to rise to at least 300 as rescue workers rushed to the quake-prone region to dig out victims.

The earthquake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, struck mountain villages near Lijiang and Zhongdian in Yunnan province Saturday evening.

The hard-hit town of Lijiang sits in a scenic valley of towering mountains. Tourists like to see its narrow, cobbled streets and mixture of rickety wooden buildings and ancient homes with heavy, traditional tile roofs.

On Saturday, those buildings became death traps for hundreds. Although China recently imposed stricter building standards in earthquake-sensitive areas, many of the houses in this part of Yunnan have not changed in centuries.

More than 2,000 soldiers were dispatched to the region, 1,300 miles southwest of Beijing, to search for victims in remote mountain villages. Army helicopters were airlifting the seriously injured to hospitals throughout the province and flying in food and tents.

The quake damaged more than 186,000 houses, and officials estimated that more than 300,000 people were affected. Homeless survivors huddled against the cold in tents set up on sports fields and parking lots.

Within 26 hours of the quake, the region was rattled by 184 aftershocks, including 18 with a magnitude of more than 4.0, local seismologists said.

An official at the Lijiang disaster coordination center told the Reuters news service that the quake had devastated a dozen townships and obliterated several villages in the sparsely populated area of 1.5 million people.

"Rescue teams expect to find only seriously injured people and the bodies of the dead now," the official said.

"We are really in need of blood and medical instruments and medicines to fight colds and flu," he added.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency said at least 10 percent of Lijiang's old houses were destroyed. Water and power in many villages near the epicenter were cut off, and communication with the outside was difficult.

The Red Cross Society of China has appealed to the international community for help. The society already has sent medicine, clothes and quilts to the region.