A powerful natural disaster has destroyed dozens of temples and stupas in the ancient city of Bagan in central Myanmar.
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More than half of Bagan’s pagodas were seriously damaged in a July 1975 natural disaster that sent the landmark Buphaya Pagoda tumbling into the Ayeyarwaddy.
A man cries as another injured is helped in Amatrice, central Italy, where a 6.1 quake struck just after 3:30 a.m., Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016. “It might be because the epicentre was in Myanmar”, a senior official at West Bengal Disaster Management Department at the secretariat told newspersons. The temples, built between the 10th and 14th centuries, are revered.
The quake was felt as far away as the Thai and Bangladesh capitals.
According to the 2014 census, the town has a population of about 45,000, with around 185,000 living in the surrounding area. The report added that a 22-year-old man was killed in the town of Pakokku due to a building collapse. There were no immediate reports of injuries, deaths or major damage. Several Buddhist temples were damaged, as well, the reports said. Since the epicentre of the natural disaster was in Myanmar, the quake hit Jharkhand too.
A local elected official told AFP the quake and subsequent tremors went on for minutes.
“My house shook during the quake. Many people were scared and they ran out of the buildings”, Maung Maung Kyaw, a local official of the ruling National League for Democracy told Reuters.
“I went outside to check the situation in the town. Some of the buildings are split and almost collapsed, but I don’t see any people affected by the quake”, Maung Maung Kyaw said.
The wire agency also quoted fire department and Red Cross officials as saying that the two children who were killed were from the small town of Yenanchaung, which is south of Chauk.
“We haven’t heard any information about casualties”.
UPDATED: 8:28 a.m. EDT – Eyewitnesses to Wednesday’s powerful quake that shook Myanmar were speaking out following the seismic event that did not immediately leave any deaths.
Myanmar is in a seismically active part of the world where the Indo-Australian Plate runs up against the Eurasian Plate.
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At least twelve people died in 2012 after a magnitude 6.8 natural disaster struck Myanmar – then Burma – destroying homes, schools and other structures such as bridges and even a goldmine, the Associated Press reported at the time.
