China's Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) activated an emergency response after a 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit southwest China's Sichuan Province Thursday morning.

Experts and work teams have been sent to the epicenter area to analyze the seismic situation and provide guidance in disaster relief, said the MEM.

Local authorities dispatched 15 fire fighting trucks and 91 firefighters to the disaster-hit areas.

According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, the earthquake rattled Gongxian County of Yibin City in Sichuan Province at 10:17 a.m. Thursday.

By 11:30 a.m. Thursday, five people had been reported injured in the earthquake. The exterior walls of some houses collapsed and some roads were cut off by landslides, local authorities said.