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Myanmar earthquake kills three people, damages scores of ancient Buddhist pagodas at Bagan

In Bagan, known as the "City of 4 Million Pagodas", one female tourist was injured at a pagoda, said local official Khin Mya Lwin. The ancient capital is a major tourist site, home to thousands of Buddhist monuments.

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake shook central Myanmar on Wednesday, killing at least three people including two children, and damaging scores of centuries-old Buddhist pagodas around the ancient capital of Bagan, according to Reuters. Fire department and Red Cross officials said two children were killed in the small town of Yenanchaung, south of Chauk.

The quake shook buildings across the Southeast Asian country, with tremors felt as far away as Thailand – where witnesses reported high rise towers swaying in Bangkok – Bangladesh and eastern India.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake struck near the town of Chauk, on the Ayeyarwaddy River south of Bagan and about 175 km (110 miles) southwest of the country’s second city Mandalay, just after 5 p.m. (1030 GMT).

In Bagan, known as the “City of 4 Million Pagodas”, one female tourist was injured at a pagoda, said local official Khin Mya Lwin. The ancient capital is a major tourist site, home to thousands of Buddhist monuments.

The Ministry of Information said nearly 100 of Bagan’s famed pagodas, mostly built between the 11th and 13th centuries, had been damaged. Bagan has around 2,000-3,000 pagodas and temples, spread over a 42-sq km plain ringed by mist-covered mountains. It rivals Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and Borobudur in Indonesia as Asia’s premier archaeological site.

The quake struck at a relatively deep 84 km (52 miles), the USGS said. The quake shook buildings in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, and in other towns and cities, witnesses said. Office buildings in the Thai capital Bangkok, to the east of Myanmar, shook for a few seconds, residents there said.

At least 20 people were injured in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, as they fled a building, local media report.

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