Myanmar hit by 6.8 magnitude earthquake
A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake rattled central Myanmar on Wednesday afternoon, more than a day after another tremor struck the Southeast Asian nation, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The quake hit around 4:34 p.m. local time (6:04 a.m. ET) about 15 miles west of Chauk, near the ancient capital of Bagan, and shook buildings in Myanmar’s largest city of Yangon, witnesses told Reuters. There were no immediate reports of injuries, deaths or major damage.
The quake was also felt several hundred miles away in Thailand’s capital of Bangkok, as well as in Bangladesh, India, Laos and China.
The epicenter is in an area where earthquakes are fairly common, but usually don’t cause many casualties because there are no large densely populated cities. However, reports of damage from remote villages are often slow to arrive.
Past quakes have damaged structures such as centuries-old Buddhist pagodas. Bagan, a major tourist attraction also known as Pagan, has hundreds of such structures.
Myanmar has been hit by other quakes this year, including a 5.5-magnitude temblor that struck the Myanmar-India border region Tuesday morning.
It also comes after a 6.2-magnitude quake rocked central Italy early Wednesday, killing at least three dozen people and reducing small towns to rubble.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/powerful-earthquake-hits-myanmar-near-ancient-capital-n636966