Two 7.0-Magnitude Earthquakes Strike Myanmar

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Two large quakes with a magnitude of 7.0 struck near north Thailand's border with Myanmar and Laos, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Witnesses said the tremors were felt in Bangkok, Myanmar and as far away as the Vietnam capital of Hanoi where people were evacuated from tall buildings. The quakes struck seconds apart at 1355 GMT and were centered 69 miles (111 km) north of the Thai town of Chiang Rai. The first one was very shallow, at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km), while the second one was deeper at 142.5 miles (230 km). It is a sparsely populated, hilly area best known as the Golden Triangle, which is a traditional source of illicit opium. There was no immediate word on any casualties or damage.
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Because the quakes struck far inland, there is no threat of a tsunami in Myanmar, the country also known as Burma. Max Jones, an Australian resident living in Bangkok, Thailand (which is about 480 miles south of the epicenter) felt the effects of the quake. He was in his 27th-floor apartment when his building started swaying so hard he had to grab the walls to keep from falling. "It was bloody scary, I can tell you," he said. Mike said he could smoke rising from nearby buildings and people running in the streets.