April 13, 2016•Update: April 20, 2016
By Kyaw Ye Lynn
YANGON, Myanmar
No casualties were reported Thursday after an earthquake hit northern Myanmar, but authorities announced that three pagodas had suffered serious damage.
The Ministry of Information said on its website that the affected structures were located in the central Sagaing region, but there had been no reports of deaths or injured persons.
Myanmar is globally famous for its ancient temples, but none of those damaged by the magnitude 6.9 tremor, which struck Wednesday night, were at world heritage sites.
The secretary of the Myanmar Earthquake Committee, a non-profit organization, told Anadolu Agency that any damage at the epicenter of the temblor would be minor as the region is underdeveloped and not densely populated.
"We need to take great care for the sequel small earthquakes after the major one as Myanmar sits on a main world earthquake belt,” Myo Thant said by phone Thursday.
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 U.S. Geological Survey said that Wednesday’s earthquake struck 100 kilometers (62 miles) north-northwest of Monywa town in Saigain.
An Anadolu Agency correspondent had observed people running out of their apartments in Yangon as the tremor struck, while The Times of India reported tremors in India's neighboring northeast, in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Orissa and Jharkhand.
