A powerful quake measuring magnitude 6.8 shook central Myanmar on Wednesday, damaging scores of ancient Buddhist pagodas in the former capital of Bagan, a major tourist attraction, officials said.
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An natural disaster of 6.8 magnitude struck central Myanmar on Wednesday, US Geological Survey (USGS) said, shaking buildings across the country and the region.
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.
Officials said the quake damaged at least 185 pagodas – many around 1,000 years old – at the site, which is a top attraction for foreign tourists flocking to the country as it emerges from decades of military rule.
Myanmar is eager to see the city listed as a Unesco World Heritage site.
On Wednesday, Dr. Myo Thant, general secretary of the Myanmar Earthquake Committee, said other areas apparently were not badly affected.
The epicenter of the quake was 143 kilometers west of the city of Meiktila in central Burma at a depth of 84 kilometers.
People rushed out of their offices following tremors in Kolkata, India.
By comparison, the epicentre of that natural disaster was just 10 kilometres underground and 6.6 kilometres from the small Italian town of Accumoli, leaving much of the town in rubble.
One person was killed and another injured when a tobacco processing factory collapsed in the town of Pakkoku, to the north, the duty officer at the local fire department said. “There were foreign tourists there as well”, said Khin Maung Toe, a Myanmar man who was visiting Bagan for the first time when the quake struck. Office buildings in the Thai capital Bangkok, to the east of Myanmar, shook for a few seconds.
The natural disaster was also felt in Bangladesh, India, Laos and China, residents said.
Bagan is home to 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries. She added that she heard other residents in her building running down stairs. There were no immediate reports of damage in either country.
The Associated Press reported that the epicentre of the natural disaster was in an area where quakes are common, but don’t usually cause high casualties because there are no densely populated cities.
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The mayor of the Umbrian town of Amatrice, hit hard by the 6.1 magnitude quake, says residents are buried under the debris of collapsed buildings and that “the town isn’t here anymore”.
