A powerful natural disaster measuring a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 has shaken central Myanmar, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
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Seismologists consider India’s mountainous northeast region as the sixth major earthquake-prone belt in the world.
In March, 2011, at least 74 people were killed in an quake in Myanmar near its borders with Thailand and Laos.
The epicentre of the quake was 58 km deep below the earth’s surface at Chauk, a small town in north-central Myanmar, according to the National Centre for Seismology, a unit of Ministry of Earth Sciences.
A 5.5 magnitude natural disaster in the Myanmar-India border region rocked Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and some other parts of northeast India on Tuesday morning.
The quake hit Wednesday afternoon and was centered about 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Chauk, an area west of the ancient capital of Bagan. Today’s quake in Assam followed two other tremors that shook the state yesterday.
A local authory spokesman said: “Subsequent tremors went on for minutes”.
“So far as we heard from our local staff, a three-storey building collapsed in Chauk and a pagoda was badly damaged in a town called Yenanchaung”, a fire department official in the regional capital Magwe said.
Police officer Htay Win in Pakokku, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the epicenter, said one person there had been killed and one injured.
“A 22 year-old man was killed when a nearby building collapsed during the natural disaster”, he told AFP, adding that a woman was also injured. However, there were no reports of serious damage in the city.
The ancient Dhammayangyi temple is seen shrouded in dust as a 6.8 magnitude natural disaster hit Bagan, Myanamr, on Wednesday. Bagan, also known as Pagan, has more than 2,200 structures including pagodas and temples constructed from the 10th to the 14th centuries.
The natural disaster caused high-rise buildings in Myanmar’s largest city Yangon to sway, as well as those in Bangkok and the Indian city of Kolkata.
The ancient capital is a major tourist site, home to thousands of Buddhist monuments.
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The quake was also felt in Bangladesh, to the west of Myanmar, where some people ran out into the street as buildings shook, residents said.
