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GUWAHATI, India : Rescue teams fanned out over remote eastern Bhutan Tuesday to assess damage and look for trapped survivors as the death toll from a strong earthquake rose to 12, a government official said.
The 6.1-magnitude quake early afternoon on Monday triggered landslides, damaged over 100 houses, several school buildings and Buddhist monasteries and sent rocks tumbling down steep mountain slopes.
Five people died in the Munggar region near the epicentre in eastern Bhutan, including three women and a two-year-old child, with three other victims found in nearby Trashigang district and four Indian workers in Samdrup Jhonkhar.
"Rescue teams have managed to reach interior areas and are assessing the damage and also looking for anyone who might require medical support or could be trapped," said government official T.M. Dorji.
Thousands of people in the eastern districts spent the night out in the open after the quake damaged homes, Bhutan's Kuensel newspaper reported, and 20 people were reported to have been admitted to hospital.
"Some of the monasteries were damaged and monks and other people simply fled the worship places out of fear," said T. Dorji, a resident of Trashigang district.
The tremors from Monday's quake were felt in northeastern India and residents were given another fright early Tuesday when a quake in neighbouring Myanmar rippled through the region.
The moderate 5.6-magnitude earthquake jolted Myanmar at 2:08 am (1938 GMT Monday), centred 427 kilometres (265 miles) northwest of Yangon at a depth of 82 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.
Strong tremors lasting up to 20 seconds Monday were experienced in northeastern Indian states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, where nervous residents ran into the streets.
The eastern Himalayan area is prone to earthquakes. Tuesday's was the sixth since August 11 to have hit India's northeast.
- AFP /ls
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