Myanmar Sends Rescue Teams After Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake

Myanmar authorities said at least seven people died and 20 were injured after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck early today.

The temblor occurred 72 miles (116 kilometers) north of Mandalay at a depth of 6.1 miles at 7:42 a.m. local time, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its website, revising an earlier estimate of magnitude-7.

The government sent military helicopters to areas near the epicenter to supply medicine, food and water to 100 temporary shelters, said Soe Aung, director general of the relief and resettlement department. The quake was the country’s deadliest since at least 74 people were killed in March last year when a 6.9-magnitude temblor struck in Shan state.

Today’s earthquake was located too far inland to generate any destructive tsunami in the Indian Ocean, according to the website of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The temblor was followed by three aftershocks with magnitudes of between 5.0 and 5.8, according to USGS.

At least 80 people were killed and 6,650 homes destroyed in neighboring Yunnan and Guizhou provinces of China when two magnitude 5.6 earthquakes shook the region bordering Myanmar in September.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Jordan in Bangkok at tjordan3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net