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BANGKOK: A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck western Laos near the border with Thailand on Wednesday, sending people screaming for cover as far away as Bangkok and Hanoi.
The quake hit at 0857 GMT, the US Geological Survey said, in the heart of the Golden Triangle where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet in what was once a notorious opium smuggling route.
Officials in those countries as well as neighbouring China said there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
People in the Thai capital Bangkok, roughly 880 kilometres (550 miles) from the epicentre, poured onto the street as high-rise buildings rocked.
In the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, hundreds of people fled office towers and hotels when the city's tall buildings started to sway.
"I thought I was suffering a stroke or a heart attack – then I realised it was an earthquake," said Fred Burke, a managing partner of the law firm Baker McKenzie, who was on the 13th floor of a Hanoi office building.
"The building shook for about a minute. The staff were screaming, and we told them to get away from the windows and take cover under the tables," said Burke, who comes from San Francisco.
The US Geological Survey estimated the tremor at a depth of 38 kilometres.
China's Seismological Monitoring Network, using a different scale, reported the quake at a strength of 6.6 while Thailand's meteorological department said a 4.7 magnitude aftershock hit at about 1005 GMT.
Officials in the four Thai provinces near the Laos border – Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Nan and Lampang – all said that they were still investigating the effects of the quake, but no serious damage or injuries had been reported.
In the province of Chiang Rai, the top of an ancient pagoda which was under restoration crumbled to the ground, a local official said.
In Chiang Mai, a city popular with tourists, people evacuated from shaking buildings and flooded onto the streets.
"My building shook twice, once very heavily, and the second time was like having a headache -- the floors were sliding," said Viparwan Chaiprakorb, who works on the third floor of an office building in the centre of Chiang Mai.
"People were scared," she told AFP by phone.
Shocked workers also huddled on the streets of Bangkok, which rarely feels the effects of earthquakes.
"I have not seen a strong earthquake like this before, my head felt like it was spinning," Nattaya Limngern, a 40-year-old office worker, told AFP.
"My first feeling was to get out of the building as soon as possible."
"I think people in Bangkok need some kinds of warning for national disaster in the future," another office worker, Kanitta Thaisong, said.
There was little information out of Laos as authorities tried to gauge the impact of the quake in the sparsely populated, mountainous region.
A spokesman for the foreign ministry said tremors were felt in the town of Oudon Xay for 10 seconds. "People were afraid and they all left buildings."
Authorities in the Chinese city of Jinghong, just over the border from the epicentre, said the quake was felt there but there were no reports of injuries or damage.
- AFP/so
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