August 25, 2016•Update: August 25, 2016
By Kyaw Ye Lynn
YANGON, Myanmar
A powerful earthquake that rocked central Myanmar has left at least four people dead and more than 200 ancient temples and pagodas damaged, government officials said Thursday.
The magnitude 6.8 earthquake, which struck 129 miles (208 kilometers) northwest of Myanmar’s second largest city Mandalay on Wednesday, shook buildings across the country, with tremors felt as far away as Thailand, Bangladesh and eastern India.
According to the ministry of information Thursday morning, at least four people, including two young girls aged 7 and 15, were killed in the earthquake, whose epicenter was located around 12 miles west of Chauk in the Magway region.
At least 230 temples and pagoda were damaged to some extent in five regions, said the ministry of religious and cultural affairs.
The ancient city of Bagan, the most famous tourist destination in central Myanmar, was the worst-hit area as 185 ancient temples and pagodas were damaged by the quake.
“Some seven pagodas such as Ancient Sulamani temple are seriously damaged by the quake,” said Aung Kyaw Kyaw, director-general of the ministry’s Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library.
“Tourists and visitors are not allowed to enter these pagodas at the moment,” he told Anadolu Agency by phone Thursday.
The quake also damaged at least three ancient temples in Mrauk U, an archaeologically renowned town in western Rakhine State, the ministry said in a statement.
The secretary of the Myanmar Earthquake Committee, a non-profit organization, told Anadolu Agency that the country urgently needs to impose strict rules and regulations for high-rise buildings, especially in populated Yangon and other major cities, as the country sits on one of the world’s most active earthquake belts.
“If a major earthquake hits Yangon, the damage would be unthinkable,” Myo Thant said.
He added that one of the many fault lines on the belt -- ranked among the world's two most active -- runs north to south through Myanmar’s central plain, placing the country’s two largest cities -- Mandalay and commercial capital Yangon -- at risk.
The United State Geological Survey recorded the temblor as having an epicenter at a depth of 84 kilometers after 5 p.m. (10.30GMT) Wednesday.
It occurred a day after a magnitude 5 quake hit the Myanmar-India border.
In April, a magnitude 6.9 temblor caused serious damage to three pagodas in the central Sagaing Region, but no casualties.
Myanmar was hit by a major earthquake in 2012 when a magnitude 6.8 temblor, with its epicenter in central Myanmar, killed at least 26 people in Shwe Bo, a small town near the Mandalay region.
