Eighty people have been confirmed dead as of 8 a.m. Saturday after multiple earthquakes struck southwest China's Yunnan Province on Friday, authorities said.

The death toll may further climb as the quakes happened at a poverty-stricken mountainous region where telecommunications and traffic infrastructure were damaged seriously, making it difficult to collect information promptly, said a spokesman with the provincial civil affairs department.

Rescuers in Yunnan Province said on Friday night they had reached 90 percent of the six quake-hit counties under Zhaotong, where a total of 740,000 people had been affected by the quakes.

The disaster has so far incurred 3.5 billion yuan (551 million U.S. dollars) in direct economic losses, Yunnan's civil affairs department said.

Two quakes measuring 5.7 and 5.6 on the Richter scale hit a border area near Yiliang in Yunnan and Weining county in Guizhou province at 11:19 a.m. and 12:16 p.m. Friday, respectively.

The quakes have cut off electricity and triggered landslides that have blocked roads, creating complications for rescuers.

Yunnan's civil affairs department said the quakes destroyed 6,650 houses and damaged 430,000 others. More than 100,000 residents have been evacuated and 100,000 others are in need of relocation.

Local authorities are also taking epidemic control measures after shed collapses had killed more than 4,300 heads of cattle in Yunnan. Over 153 hectares of farmlands were damaged or destroyed.

Officials in Guizhou said two people were injured and lives of nearly 28,000 people were disrupted in Weining county. Eighteen houses were toppled and more than 10,000 houses were damaged in the quakes.

【新聞快訊】

中新網(wǎng)9月8日電 綜合報道，云南省民政廳8日凌晨通報稱，截至目前，7日中午發(fā)生在云南彝良縣的地震已造成當(dāng)?shù)?0人死亡，795人受傷，74.4萬人受災(zāi)。

9月7日11時19分，云南省昭通市彝良縣與貴州省畢節(jié)地區(qū)威寧彝族回族苗族自治縣交界發(fā)生5.7級地震。12時16分，昭通市彝良縣又發(fā)生5.6級地震。隨后又發(fā)生多次余震。

云南省民政廳稱，地震造成昭通市彝良縣、昭陽區(qū)和大關(guān)縣3縣24個鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)受災(zāi)。不完全統(tǒng)計，災(zāi)區(qū)房屋倒塌1900戶6650間，嚴重損壞3.7萬戶12.2萬間，一般損壞13.3萬戶30.8萬間，需緊急轉(zhuǎn)移安置人口20.1萬人，直接經(jīng)濟損失35億元人民幣。災(zāi)情仍在進一步統(tǒng)計中。

（中文新聞?wù)灾袊侣劸W(wǎng)）