Myanmar | Quake hits country, but no deaths reported

Resident women who rushed outdoors following tremors speak on their mobile phones outside their houses in Kolkata

A strong earthquake that struck Myanmar damaged at least nine Buddhist pagodas and was felt in parts of eastern India and Bangladesh, but an official said yesterday there were no reports of serious damage or injuries in the Southeast Asian country.
The magnitude 6.9 quake struck Wednesday night at a depth of 135 kilometers, 396 kilometers north of Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Residents in Myanmar’s main city of Yangon panicked after the quake struck
causing people to rush out of their homes. An Associated Press journalist who was in a Yangon hospital at the time of the quake said the six-
story Shwegonedine Specialist Center shook strongly and many people, including patients, staff and visitors, ran outside.
The quake was centered in the jungle and hills 220 kilometers northwest of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city. While the area is prone to earthquakes, it is generally sparsely populated, and most houses are low-rise structures.
In the Sagaing region just southwest of Mandalay, Sa Willy Frient, the director of the Relief and Resettlement Department, said there were no reports of serious injuries.
“There are still no death reports,” he said, adding that nine pagodas had been damaged.
“None of the pagodas collapsed, but there are cracks in some parts,” he said.
Government offices were closed yesterday because of a three-day national holiday to mark Myanmar’s traditional new year, and there was no official announcement about the quake’s impact.
Zaw Myint Htoo, a 38-year-old resident of Mogok, 200 kilometers north of Mandalay, confirmed there was no major damage in that city either.
The tremors were felt in the eastern Indian states of West Bengal and Assam, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were visiting during their tour of India. Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, were staying in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park on Wednesday night and were safe, according to the British High Commission in New Delhi.
“We felt the tremor very strongly, but all is fine,” said British Deputy High Commissioner Scott Furssedonn-Wood, who was accompanying the royal couple.
William and Kate left for neighboring Bhutan yesterday and were to return to India today to visit the Taj Mahal.
People also reported feeling the quake in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, 484 kilometers from the epicenter. AP