A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit southwest China's mountainous Yunnan province late Tuesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The quake struck at the shallow depth of 10 kilometres (6.3 miles) at 9.49 pm (1349 GMT) in a region that lies close to China's borders with Myanmar and Laos.

China's official Xinhua news agency said at least one person had been killed and 19 others injured.

"Many houses collapsed and we are investigating the casualties," a local official told the agency. "The aftershocks seem non-stopping."

The epicentre was located in Jinggu County, 85-kilometres from Pu'er city, in a region famous for its tea plantations. The quake was also felt in Yunnan's provincial capital Kunming.

USGS had earlier given a lower magnitude reading of 5.8 and a shallower depth of five kilometres.

Xinhua gave a significantly higher reading of 6.6-magnitude, citing the China Earthquake Networks Center.

The agency said buildings shook for several seconds, according to local officials, while some phone calls to the region went unanswered.

"The whole building was shaking terribly with a loud cracking sound. Plates fell off in the kitchen. We all ran out and the streets now are packed with people," Li Anqin, a woman living in Weiyuan town, the county seat of Jinggu, told Xinhua via telephone.

Photos on social media showed damaged houses, cracked walls and fallen roof tiles, and crowds of people gathered outside into the night.

Yunnan is acutely vulnerable to earthquakes. The region sees frequent seismic activity from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which form the vast Himalaya mountain range.

In August, a 6.1-magnitude struck Yunnan killing more than 600 people. At least 3,143 people were injured, while more than 80,000 homes were fully or partially destroyed.

China's neighbouring Sichuan province was also struck by a particularly brutal quake in 2008 in which more than 80,000 victims perished.