Child killed as Malawi quakes continue

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A child has been killed and houses have collapsed in Malawi's northern district of Karonga as tremors shook the southern African country for a third day.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said a quake of magnitude 5.9, located 10km deep, struck the uranium-rich region early on Tuesday, after an earlier series of tremors in the same area.

Gasten Macheka, chief executive officer of the Karonga District Assembly, said tremors occurred throughout the night.

"The tremors continued mildly until we felt the intense one this morning," he said, adding people were evacuated from their homes after the first quakes on Sunday.

"Houses are continuing to fall in the villages and people are continuing to sleep outside their homes," Macheka said.

Police spokesman Enock Levason said a one-year-old child was killed and two other people were injured in Tuesday's tremors.

"A kitchen collapsed on the child in a village called Mwangomba," he said.

The epicentre was 175km north of Mzuzu, Malawi's third largest city, and 125km southeast of the Tanzanian town of Mbeya.

Authorities in Karonga were on high alert after the tremors, which injured six people, two seriously, on Sunday and damaged houses, schools and some government offices.

The director of the Malawi Geological Survey, Leonard Kalindekafe, said the epicentre was near Chilumba, a small port and trading centre on Lake Malawi. He said Malawi's position in the Great Rift Valley meant tremors were common.

The area is near the Tanzanian border.

"I felt it at about 6.15am. We have no information about people who have been injured. We have no information of buildings which have fallen down," said Diwani Athumani, regional crimes officer in Mbeya, across the border in Tanzania where there were no initial reports of injuries or damage.

- Reuters