Beijing  - An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit part of south-western China's Sichuan province on Saturday, the State Seismological Bureau said.

The epicentre of the quake was about 50 kilometres south-east of Sichuan's Panzhihua city at a depth of about 10 kilometres, the bureau said on its website.

It said the area affected by the quake, which struck at 4:30 pm Saturday (1030 GMT), had a population density of about 118 people per square kilometre.

Officials and emergency workers had travelled to the area to assess the impact of the quake, and there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Sichuan was hit by a devastating earthquake that killed more than 70,000 people on May 12 and thousands of aftershocks have shaken parts of the province since then.