BEIJING (AFP) - One person was killed and at least 17 injured on Thursday as three powerful earthquakes hit the area of China's southwest that was devastated by a massive tremor in May, local authorities said.

The three quakes rattled a rural, mountainous area of Sichuan province, the US Geological Survey said, where the May 12 quake struck leaving more than 87,000 people dead or missing.

One person was killed in Thursday's quakes and at least 17 people were injured, including six seriously, the Sichuan Provincial Earthquake Bureau said in a statement on its website.

The local earthquake bureau said that 360 homes had collapsed and several roads had been damaged or destroyed in the quakes, which hit within a few kilometres of each other where Sichuan borders Gansu province.

The area was severely damaged in the May quake but that appeared to help reduce casualties on Thursday, as most people were living in tents after losing their homes in the earlier disaster, according to reports in the Chinese press.

A reporter for China's official Xinhua news agency based in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, said the third tremor was felt there and lasted for around 20 seconds. However there were no reports of damage in Chengdu.

The first quake struck at 3:54 am (1954 GMT Wednesday) with a magnitude of 5.8 and at a depth of 10 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.

The second quake hit at 1:30 pm, with a magnitude of 4.8 and a depth of 10 kilometres, according to the USGS. The third quake hit at 3:09 pm with a magnitude of 5.5 and also a depth of 10 kilometres.

The 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan on May 12 killed 69,197 people and left 18,209 others missing, according to the government.

The quake sparked international help from rescue teams and an enormous domestic relief effort.

Following the May 12 earthquake more than 12,600 aftershocks have rattled the region with at least 25 measuring greater than 5.0 on the Richter scale, and five between 6.0 and 6.9, the China Earthquake Administration has said.

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