Now Far East rocked by magnitude 6.8 earthquake

The quake struck in an area where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet, about 70 miles from Chiang Rai.

The northern Thai city sustained minor damage, it was reported.

One woman living in a village north of Chiang Rai, just two miles from the border, died when a brick wall collapsed on her, according to police captain Weerapon Samranjai.

The 6.8-magnitude quake was just six miles deep, according to the US Geological Survey.

At that strength and depth, the USGS said, the 600,000 people affected could have felt shaking anywhere from strong to violent.

It added that since buildings in the stricken are considered vulnerable, damage could be widespread.

Major General Mongkol Sampawapon, a police chief from another district near Chiang Rai, described the quake last night. He said: "It was like somebody was running on the roof. Everybody was in a panic. They came out of their houses and wondered what happened," In another northern Thai city, people ran into the streets in their pyjamas.

There were no immediate reports of damage from the Burma side, a remote area where communications, even in the best of times, are difficult.

The country's military-controlled government also tightly controls information.

Buildings swayed in Bangkok, about 480 miles south of the epicentre.

Max Jones, an Australian resident of the Thai capital, was in his 27th-floor apartment when his building started shaking so hard he had to grab the walls to keep from falling.

"It was bloody scary, I can tell you," he said. Mr Jones said he could see people running in the streets. The quake was followed by two smaller aftershocks, 4.8 and 5.4 in magnitude.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the quake was located too far inland to create a destructive tsunami.