YANGON, Burma - At least 75 people have been killed and hundreds of buildings damaged in a strong earthquake that rocked remote border areas of Burma (Myanmar), Thailand and Laos.Tremors were felt as far away as Bangkok, almost 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the epicentre, Hanoi and parts of China when the earthquake hit late on Thursday, which the US Geological Survey (USGS) measured at magnitude 6.8.
There were fears that the death toll could rise as rescue teams reached villages in north-east Burma, which suffered most of the casualties from the quake.- State media in Burma said that 74 people had died and 111 were injured, though the regime is notoriously slow to release bad news for fear of further criticism. Another woman died in the Thai border town of Mae Sai when a wall collapsed.
- The epicentre of the quake, which was followed by six strong aftershocks on Friday, came 69 miles north of the Thai regional city of Chiang Mai, at a depth of 6.2 milles. But most of the damage occurred in the Burmese border town Tachilek and surrounding area.
In all the Burmese authorities said that 390 homes, 14 Buddhist monasteries and nine government buildings were damaged by Thursday night's quake that was felt as far away as Bangkok and the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, 500 miles distant.- An official from the UN's World Food Programme operating in Burma said one particular village, Mong Lin, close to Tachilek, seemed to have been particularly hard hit when 29 people were killed and 16 injured.
The renewed tremors sent panicked residents fleeing from their homes in Chiang Mai. Four pagodas in the historic town of Chiang Saen, near Thailand's border with Burma were damaged while 10ft spire of one crashed to the ground.
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