A powerful 6.8-magnitude quake struck central Myanmar yesterday, killing at least three people, including two children, and damaging around 60 pagodas in the ancient city of Bagan, officials said.
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“They’re very quaint, but they don’t withstand earthquakes very well”, Hough said.
A fire department official from regional capital Magwe said two young girls were killed when a riverbank gave way in Yenanchaung township, south of Chauk.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centred about 25 km west of Chauk, an area west of Bagan.
Strong tremors of quake were felt in various parts of the country, including Kolkata, Patna and Guwahati at around 4 p.m. on Wednesday. “Many people were scared and they ran out of the buildings”, said Maung Maung Kyaw, a local official of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party in Chauk. The quake, which the agency said struck at a depth of 84 kilometres, swayed high-rise buildings in the Thai capital of Bangkok, AFP journalists reported.
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An official reported heavy damage to several temples in Bagan – Myanmar’s most famous archaeological site and a major tourist destination some 30km north of the quake’s epicentre. Everything around starting shivering at around 4.04 pm and the effect was well felt across the city as well as all the districts. However, reports of damage from remote villages are often slow to arrive.
“The quake also sent office workers running from their buildings in Bangkok, Thailand and Kolkata, India, and some public transportation in those cities was delayed or suspended”. The People’s Daily China has reported that at least three people were killed from the quake.
In addition to the death toll, more details emerged about the status of the country’s Buddhist monuments and the damage they sustained from the natural disaster.
Videos posted on social media shows the tops of some pagodas crumbling in Bagan, with large clouds of dust swirled high up in the sky.
The powerful quake was also felt in neighboring Bangladesh and several Indian states including West Bengal, Bihar and Assam, with thousands of panic-stricken people rushed outdoors following the jolts that lasted for seconds.
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Earthquakes are relatively common in Myanmar, although the country has not suffered a major one since 2012.
