An earthquake has destroyed houses, killed at least three people and injured dozens in south-west China’s Sichuan province.

Rescue work was under way following Thursday’s magnitude-6.0 earthquake.

It struck at 4.33am at a depth of 10 kilometres in Luxian, a county in the city of Luzhou, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

State broadcaster CCTV said 88 people were injured, three seriously, and that 35 houses had collapsed.

Update: 3 dead, 60 others injured after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Luxian County, Sichuan, SW China https://t.co/Z4LnqD0T0I pic.twitter.com/RpLWDupusm

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) September 16, 2021

The epicentre was about 200 kilometres south-east of Chengdu, the provincial capital.

Xinhua reported that collapsed walls and houses could be seen on the way to the epicentre, and that electricity had been suspended in much of Jiaming town. Residents could be seen cleaning up.

Rescue workers were going door to door in heavy rain searching for people in damaged homes in Fuji town to move them to temporary shelters, Xinhua said.

Lai Jianrong, a Fuji resident, told Xinhua that she felt a mild tremor around 4am and ran out barefoot in her nightgown when the tremors became intense.

“Some bricks fell off the wall and I didn’t dare to go in again,” the agency quoted her as saying.

More than 3200 people have been moved to 79 shelters, CCTV said.

Western China is regularly hit by earthquakes.

A magnitude-7.9 quake in May 2008 left nearly 90,000 people dead in Sichuan, many of them in collapsed schools and other poorly constructed buildings.