Rescuers dug through the rubble of collapsed homes in remote villages in northwest China on Tuesday, after China's deadliest earthquake in years killed at least 118 people and injured hundreds more.

Officials in impoverished Gansu province said the shallow tremor just before midnight had killed at least 105 people and injured nearly 400 more.

A further 13 died, 182 were injured, and 20 were missing in Haidong in neighboring Qinghai province, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The quake damaged thousands of homes — many ramshackle brick structures — and sent residents running into the freezing streets for safety.

"I was almost scared to death. Look at how my hands and legs are shaking," said a woman of about 30 in a video posted to a social media account associated with the state-run People's Daily newspaper.

"As soon as I ran out of the house, the earth on the mountain gave way, thudding on the roof," she said as she sat swaddled in a blanket outside, cradling a baby.

Footage from CCTV showed family possessions strewn among masonry from a house that caved in during the shaking.

An AFP team in Haidong saw vehicles ferrying supplies and workers repairing road barriers.

Deadliest in years

The quake was China's deadliest since 2014 when more than 600 people died in southwestern Yunnan province.

China's western hinterland carries the scars of frequent seismic activity, and a massive quake in Sichuan province in 2008 left more than 87,000 people dead or missing, including 5,335 schoolchildren.

The US Geological Survey said Monday night's magnitude-5.9 quake struck at a shallow depth at 11:59 p.m. local time (1559 GMT), with the epicenter around 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Gansu's provincial capital, Lanzhou.

China's state news agency Xinhua reported the magnitude as 6.2 and said the shaking was felt as far away as the major city of Xi'an, about 570 kilometers away.

Dozens of smaller aftershocks followed, and officials warned that tremors with a magnitude of more than 5.0 were possible in the next few days.                    

WITH AFP