Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today expressed profound shock and sorrow at the casualties in the deadliest earthquake in years in remote villages of northwest China's Gansu province.

A magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck one of China's poorest regions just before midnight on Monday, killing at least 126 people, injuring hundreds and bringing down mud houses in remote villages that never stood a chance.

Chinese state media arriving at the sixth commune of Dahe village, one of the worst-hit areas in China's northwestern Gansu province, found many houses were either at risk of collapse, or had already crumbled to the ground, especially homes built from earth and clay.

More than 155,000 homes in Gansu were either damaged or destroyed.