Chinese and US government seismologists said that the first tremor hit at 11:20 a.m. (0320 GMT) on Friday at a depth of about 10 kilometers (six miles) along the borders of Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, and the second quake struck around an hour later in the area, followed by more than 60 aftershocks.
The death toll could rise since the quakes struck in a relatively populous and poor region, the Xinhua news agency quoted government officials as saying on Saturday.
Friday's quakes were relatively shallow. This type of earthquake creates intense shaking, even at a lower magnitude, and causes a lot of damage.
The telecommunications network and roadways were seriously damaged, making it very difficult to collect information, a local official said.
The quakes cut off electricity and triggered landslides and blocked roads, he added.
A local resident said people came out of their houses after the first quake struck and did not go back indoors. "Lots of people are outside because they fear aftershocks," he added.
"I was walking on the street when I suddenly felt the ground shaking beneath me," one witness said in a post on Chinese microblog Sina Weibo. "People started rushing outside screaming, it still scares me to think of it now."
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