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(BangkokPost.com)
A moderate earthquake centered in the Golden Triangle area in the far North was felt in Bangkok and most of the northern provinces on Wednesday afternoon, but no casualties or damage was reported.
The quake was estimated initially by Thai authorities at 5.7-magnitude. There were no reports of damage in Thailand but several high-rise buildings were evacuated.
It occurred near the tri-border area where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet, north of Chiang Rai provincial town. National Disaster Warning Centre director Smith Dharmasarojana said the quake began at 3.57 p.m. Thailand time, 0857 GMT.
"The tremor could be felt in Bangkok and the northern provinces," he said in a television interview.
"The people in Oudomxai, near the epicentre, were shocked and ran out of their buildings but there were no reports of casualties or damage," said Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chauthalousy, in a telephone interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Residents and workers in Bangkok skyscrapers said they felt the shock, particularly in the Silom Road area, the Bangkok business centre.
In Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, tall buildings swayed and people ran into the streets, but no damage was reported, according to dpa.
Hoang Quoc Uy, 30, entertainment manager at Hanoi's 18-floor Fortuna Hotel, said he was in his top-floor office at the time of the quake.
"Suddenly, I felt the floor shaking, and the paintings on the wall were shaking too," Uy said. "Looking out of the window, I saw a lot of people running out to the street from high buildings around."
Uy said he called his wife at their one-story home nearby and she said she'd felt nothing. "I think only people in high buildings were able to recognise it as an earthquake."
The US Geological Service said the exact epicentre of the quake was inside Laos, 110km northeast of Chiang Rai. It registered 6.1 on the Richter scale, and was centered 38 kilometeres beneath the ground, the USGS said.
The Google map of the quake is here (map in Thai; details in English):
http://tinyurl.com/2eel63
The latest news on the quake can be found on the USGS website:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recent.../us2007ckan.php
Mr Smith said he expected many aftershocks from the quake.
Office employees flee their high-rise buildings on Silom Road to wait on street after they felt the quake at 4 pm.
Credit to bangkokpost ,nationnewspaper.
Scary. Thanks for the news Kluay.
I don't want to imagin it. Thanks for sharing Kluay.
