BEIJING, Sept 7: Two shallow 5.6 magnitude earthquakes hit mountainous southwestern China on Friday, killing at least 67 people and forcing tens of thousands of people from damaged buildings, state media said.

The quakes struck near the border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, the first one at 11.19am and the second one about 45 minutes later, the US Geological Survey said.

About 731 people were injured and 20,000 homes damaged in the remote mountainous region about 350km from the Yunnan provincial capital Kunming, the official Xinhua news agency said.

As the number of dead climbed throughout the day, state media reported that Prime Minister Wen Jiabao would travel to the area.

President Hu Jintao called for disaster relief to be dispatched to the area while attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok.

Most of the victims were from Yiliang County in Yunnan, near the epicentre of the quakes, which struck at a depth of about 9km. —Reuters