Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Latest News

Powerful 7.7-magnitude quake hits Myanmar

A powerful 7.7 earthquake hit central Myanmar on Friday, close to the country’s second city of Mandalay, home to around 1 million people and historic temple complexes, with tremors shaking buildings as far away as the Thai capital of Bangkok.

Video posted online from both countries showed panicked residents running from swaying residential towers as dust fills the air, and traffic comes to a sudden stop on busy city streets.

Myanmar is already reeling from more than four years of civil war sparked by a bloody and economically destructive military coup, with has seen military forces battle rebel groups across the country. It remains one of Asia’s poorest nations and is ill-equipped to deal with major natural disasters.

“We saw other people running out of the buildings too. It was very sudden and very strong.”

Another resident said phone networks in the city home to around 8 million people were briefly down following the quake but were now running again.

The epicenter was in nearby Sagaing region, which has been ravaged by the civil war, with the junta, pro-military militia and rebel groups battling for control and all running checkpoints, making travel by road or river extremely difficult.

A resident in Thailand’s northern city of Chiang Mai, who also did not want to be named, said “I felt it for about ten seconds in my room then I figured out I couldn’t stay inside. So I rushed out on to the street.

Tremors were also felt in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, according to Xinhua.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

You May Also Like

Editor's Pick

Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is back in the headlines — not for suspending his campaign last week and endorsing Republican...

Investing

In recent years, the global oil market has been impacted significantly by COVID-19 disruptions, price wars between oil-producing nations, Russia’s war in Ukraine and...

Editor's Pick

Sister Stephanie Schmidt had a hunch about what her fellow nuns would discuss over dinner at their Erie, Pennsylvania, monastery on Wednesday night. The...

Investing

Those interested in the lithium sector and investing in lithium stocks are often curious about which countries produce the most of the battery metal,...