One person was killed and 23 others were injured in a 6.1-magnitude aftershock in Qingchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province, at 5:49 PM on Tuesday.

The casualties were in Yaodu Township, which was also severely affected by the 8.0 quake on May 12, said an official in the publicity department of the Qingchuan County Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Ma Jian, chief of the publicity department, said the latest quake also disrupted communications in Yaodu.

Traffic on National Highway 212 was disrupted after a bridge on the road collapsed as a result of Tuesday's quake.

Because communications and roads have been disrupted in Yaodu, relief workers will have to enter the area on foot from Qingchuan or travel to Qingmuchuan Township in Ningqiang County, in neighboring Shaanxi Province, to enter this isolated township.

The China Earthquake Networks Center said Tuesday's aftershock struck Qingchuan, adjacent to Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, with the epicenter about 10 km underground.

It was felt in the cities of Hanzhong and Xi'an, both in Shaanxi, as well as Chongqing. Many people rushed out of buildings in those cities.

The death toll from the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province and its neighboring regions stood at 69,207 as of Monday noon, the State Council Information Office said in a statement.

The number of people listed as missing and injured stood at 18,194 and 374,468, respectively.

In the 96 hours ending Monday noon, three aftershocks measuring 4.0 to 4.9, one between 6.0 and 6.9 and 770 aftershocks at or below magnitude 3.9 were monitored in the quake zone, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

A total of 22,019 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)