BEIJING.- At magnitude of at least 5.5 earthquake shook part of central China on Saturday, killing at least 14 people and injuring nearly 400, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

It said the quake happened at about 9 a.m., with the epicenter in Ruichang, a city of 420,000 in Jiangxi province, with hundreds of homes collapsed and thousands damaged.

Fearing aftershocks, many people in Ruichang were staying outside, and reports of a milder trembling at about 1 p.m.

Rows of crumbled brick buildings and deep cracks in the walls of many still standing were shown on Chinese Central Television news.

It showed a young boy with his head heavily bandaged and a man crying on a bench as he cradled an injured leg. An old man and his injured wife shared a cot at a makeshift medical center set up in the street.

To treat some of the 377 injured, tents were set up outside a hospital. Xinhua said 1,000 tents were being sent to the area.

The Government’s Seismological Bureau said the quake was magnitude 5.7, while the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., reported it was 5.5.