Two earthquakes in quick succession shook the border between China and Myanmar on August 21 leaving three people dead and more than 100 injured, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua reported that the quake left three people dead, including one woman in her 30s, while power and telephone lines were knocked out for a time in the mountainous and sparsely populated region in Yunnan Province.

The quakes, measuring 5.0 and 5.9, struck less than four minutes apart more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the city of Dali, a popular tourist spot in southwest China.

They happened 61 and 36 kilometres respectively from Myitkyina in northern Myanmar early in the evening of August 21, according to a statement on the USGS website.

The epicentre of the quakes, which both hit at a depth of 10 kilometres, were less than 30 kilometres away from a 5.3-magnitude tremor in the area on the morning of August 20.

The USGS reported that the quakes followed a tremor that hit the same area one day earlier.