Two dead as strong quake hits Myanmar: Officials

Residents stand outside a building after an earthquake in Hanoi. Witnesses said the tremors were felt in Bangkok, Myanmar and as far away as the Vietnam capital of Hanoi where people were evacuated from tall buildings. --PHOTO: REUTERS

YANGON - A STRONG earthquake struck Myanmar near the Thai border on Thursday, killing at least two people, including a child, officials from both countries said, with shaking felt across the region.

Terrified residents fled their homes, tall buildings swayed and hospitals and schools were evacuated after tremors spread as far away as Bangkok, almost 800km from the epicentre, Hanoi and parts of China.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) initially recorded the quake as magnitude 7.0, but later revised it down to 6.8. A powerful aftershock was later measured at magnitude 5.4. The epicentre was close to the borders with Thailand and Laos and was just 10km deep.

A Myanmar official said a youngster died in a town close to the border with Thailand. 'We received a report that a child was killed in Tachileik town when a building collapsed because of the quake,' said the official, who declined to be named.

Another three people were reported to have been injured in a different part of the town, which was close to the epicentre of the quake, and a resident said he could feel a tremor as he spoke to AFP.

Just across the border from Tachileik in Thailand, police in Mae Sai district said a 52-year-old woman was killed after a wall of her house collapsed. Colonel Thanomsak Yospan, superintendent of Mae Sai district police, told AFP that the woman's home was poorly constructed and did not stand up to the tremor. -- AFP

QUAKE FELT IN BANGKOK, YUNNAN, HANOI

The quake struck 90km north of Chiang Rai and 235km north-north-east of Chiang Mai, Thailand's second city and a popular tourist destination. Tall buildings shuddered in Bangkok during the tremor.

In China, villagers around 40km the Myanmar border in the south-western province of Yunnan said buildings swayed for over a minute during the quake, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

More than 350 students and teachers were evacuated from a school in Menghai County, Yunnan, after the building developed cracks, Xinhua said.

People in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, nearly 900km from the epicentre, fled buildings when they felt tremors, Xinhua said. No casualties were reported in China.

In central Hanoi - in Vietnam, away from the epicentre - the quake was felt as a smooth rocking motion that lasted for several seconds. Some Hanoi residents fled their homes in a panic, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The quake comes two weeks after Japan was hit by a monster earthquake, which unleashed a devastating tsunami that left around 27,000 people dead or missing and triggered a crisis at its Fukushima nuclear plant. -- AFP