Earthquake strikes northern Myanmar

A strong earthquake of magnitude-6.8 struck northern Myanmar on Sunday, collapsing a bridge and a gold mine, damaging several old Buddhist pagodas and leaving as many as 12 people feared dead.

A slow release of official information left the actual extent of the damage unclear after Sunday morning's strong quake. Myanmar has a poor official disaster response system, despite having lost upward of 140,000 people to a devastating cyclone in 2008.

Myanmar's second-biggest city of Mandalay reported no casualties or major damage as the nearest major population centre to the main quake Mandalay lies about 117 kilometres south of the quake's epicentre near the town of Shwebo.

Smaller towns closer to the main quake's epicentre were worse hit.

The area surrounding the epicentre is underdeveloped, and casualty reports were coming in piecemeal, mostly from local media. The region is a centre for mining of minerals and gemstones, and several mines were reported to have collapsed.

The evening news on state television showed Vice-President Sai Maul Hkam visiting the town of Tha-beikyin, where the report said damage included 102 homes, 21 religious buildings, 48 government offices and four schools. The town, a gold-mining centre, is near the quake's epicentre and had casualties of three dead and 35 injured. The report brought total officially confirmed casualties to six killed and 64 injured.

Independently compiled tallies suggested a death toll of about a dozen. An official from Myanmar's Meteorological Department said the magnitude-6.8 quake struck at 7: 42 a.m. local time.

The U.S. Geological Society reported a 5.8-magnitude aftershock later Sunday, but there were no initial reports of new damage or casualties.

State television warned residents that aftershocks usually follow a major earthquake and told people to stay away from high walls, old buildings and structures with cracks in them.

The biggest single death toll was reported by a local administrative officer in Sintku township - on the Irrawaddy River near the quake's epicentre - who told The Associated Press that six people had died there and another 11 were injured.

He said some of the dead were miners who were killed when a gold mine collapsed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because local officials are normally not allowed to release information to the media.

Rumours circulated in Yangon of other mine collapses trapping workers, but none of the reports could be confirmed.

According to news reports, several people died when a bridge under construction across the Irrawaddy River collapsed east of Shwebo. The bridge linked the town of Sintku, 65 kilometres north of Mandalay on the east bank of the Irrawaddy, with Kyauk-myaung on the west bank.

The website of Weekly Eleven magazine said four people were killed and 25 injured when the bridge, which was 80 per cent finished, fell. The local government announced a toll of two dead and 16 injured. All of the victims appeared to be workers.

However, a Shwebo police officer, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said just one person was confirmed dead from the bridge's collapse, while five were still unaccounted for.

Weekly Eleven also said two monasteries in Kyaukmyaung collapsed, killing two people.

The quake was felt in Bangkok, the capital of neighbouring Thailand.

It comes just a week ahead of a scheduled visit to Myanmar by President Barack Obama.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2012/11/12/earthquake-strikes-northern-myanmar/