Magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes northeastern Myanmar

A severe magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck a sparsely populated mountain area in the Golden Triangle region of northeastern Myanmar on Thursday, with tremors being felt over a wide radius.

News agencies reported Friday that as many as 50 people had been killed, a bridge was destroyed near the epicenter, homes were damaged in southern China and buildings shook as far away as Bangkok; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Yangon, Myanmar's largest city.

Buildings were damaged near the epicenter in Myanmar's Shan State and villagers felt aftershocks for several hours, said an official with World Vision, a children's aid agency, in Myanmar. Reports of any damage and injuries, though, were slow to emerge overnight from the remote mountains and valleys.

The area affected is landlocked, and no tsunami warning was issued, according to New York Times.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake at 8.25 p.m. local time (1355 GMT) was centered near the village of Loi Mwe in Shan state of Myanmar, about 89 kilometers (55 miles) north of Chiang Rai in Thailand and 168 kilometers (104 miles) south-southwest of Yunjinghong in China. It struck about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the Myanmar Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH).

The extent of the damage and casualties was still unclear on Friday afternoon, but state-run media reported that at least 41 people had been killed and 48 others had been injured. It said a total of 244 houses, 14 monasteries, and nine government buildings had been destroyed.

In Thailand, where shaking was felt as far away as the capital of Bangkok, local media reported that a 55-year-old person was killed in Chiang Rai when a wall fell over. There were no other reports of casualties from Thailand, although there were unconfirmed reports of damage in the Chiang Rai area, Channel 6 News Online reports.