One person was killed, eleven were injured and more than 100 houses collapsed in an earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter Scale in southwest China's Sichuan Province early Sunday.

The casualties were reported in three villages of Moxi town, Suining City in eastern Sichuan after the quake jolted the area at 5:36 a.m. (Beijing time), according to the Sichuan Provincial Earthquake Administration.

More than 30 local seismologists and officials, led by Lu Yipei, deputy director of the administration, have reached the quake-hit area to carry out further investigation, the administration said.

China's national seismological network said the epicenter was at the juncture part between Suining and Tongnan County of Chongqing Municipality (30.3 degrees north latitude and 105.7 degrees east longitude), with a depth of about 10 kilometers.

Suining, a city with a population of 3.8 million, is 140 km east to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan.

The seismologists saw a slim possibility of more strong quakes in the area, where there were only three minor quakes measuring 2.0 on the Richter Scale in the past 20 years, the administration said.

Currently they were still not sure if the quake on Sunday was an aftershock of the 8.0-magnitude quake in Sichuan on May 12, 2008, which left about 87,000 people dead or missing.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2010)