Four people were killed, 41 others were injured and one of the injured was in critical condition as of 9:00 am on Thursday after two earthquakes struck Ya'an, Sichuan province.

According to the general office of the Ya'an municipal committee of the Communist Party of China, the four people perished after being hit by falling stones.

Located in the western part of Sichuan, Ya'an has many mountains.

An earthquake of 6.1 magnitude hit Lushan, a county under the administration of Ya'an, at 5 pm on Wednesday according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.

Three minutes later, a magnitude-4.5 earthquake was observed in Baoxing, another county under the administration of Ya'an, at 5:03 pm.

According to the Sichuan Earthquake Administration, the Lushan earthquake on Wednesday was an aftershock of the Lushan earthquake that killed 196 people and injured 12,614 on April 20, 2013.

It is unlikely that a larger aftershock will occur in the near future, it said.

The epicenter of the 2013 quake is in Longmen township, 9 km away from Wednesday's earthquake.

Two aftershocks at and above magnitude-3.0 were recorded as of 8 o'clock on June 2, according to the center.