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Earthquake cracks walls and roads, damages temples in north Thailand; no casualties reported

May 5, 2014   by Thanyarat Doksone, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


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BANGKOK, Thailand – A strong earthquake shook northern Thailand and Myanmar on Monday evening, smashing windows, cracking walls and roads and damaging Buddhist temples. No casualties were reported.

The airport in Chiang Rai, a northern Thai city near the epicenter of the 6.1-magnitude temblor, evacuated people from its terminal, where display signs and pieces of the ceiling fell. There was no damage to the runway or flight disruptions, airport General Manager Damrong Klongakara said.

A well-known temple in the city, the all-white Wat Rongkhun, was closed due to safety concerns after the earthquake.

“The spire of the main building came off and the tiles on the roof fell off,” Chalermchai Kositpiphat, the artist who designed the temple, told Nation TV. “I still don’t know how we can sleep tonight. … It was shaking the whole time and then aftershocks followed four to five times. It will bring more damages each time an aftershock happens, I’m afraid.

“The murals are also damaged because the pillars were shaken badly,” Chalermchai said. “I don’t know how many years it will take me to fix it. … It was tumbling like the earth was going to explode.”

The head of a Buddha statue fell at the Udomwaree Temple in Chiang Rai, according to monk Phra Pathompong. A residential building at the temple also had exterior cracks and ceiling damage, and residents reported only minor damage in their homes, he said.

In Chiang Rai’s Phan district, one road was split by multiple cracks, the worst a waist-high gash about the length of three vehicles.

People ran down stairs in office buildings in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, and severe shaking also was felt in Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second-largest city. Window curtains briefly swayed in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

No casualties have been reported and damage was reported only to roads and buildings, said Anusorn Kaewkangwan, deputy director-general at the Interior Ministry.

Thailand’s Meteorological Department said the quake was 6.1 magnitude. The U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 6.0 and said the epicenter was 9 kilometres (6 miles) south of Mae Lao and 27 kilometres (17 miles) southwest of Chiang Rai. Its depth was a relatively shallow 7.4 kilometres (4.6 miles). Shallow quakes are generally felt more widely.

Southeast Asia is seismically active and quakes are often felt in surrounding nations. Thailand has several faults, though in recent times quakes centred in the country have been less severe than those in other Southeast Asian nations such as Myanmar and Indonesia.

The 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered an Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 8,000 people in Thailand’s coastal areas, among its overall death toll of 240,000.

The last quake in Thailand approaching a similar size to Monday’s was one of 5.1 magnitude on Dec. 13, 2006, in the northern province of Chiang Mai.

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