One Dead, More Than 20 Hurt After Thailand Earthquake

An elderly woman died and more than 20 other people were injured after an earthquake shook northern Thailand, Thai officials said Tuesday.

The 6.0-magnitude quake struck near Chiang Rai, near the Laos and Burma borders, on Monday afternoon. Aftershocks continued to rattle the mountainous region on Tuesday.

The quake, which struck at a shallow depth of just 7.4 kilometers, had its epicenter in the remote Phan district of Chiang Rai province, geologists said, and was felt hundreds of kilometers to the south in Bangkok.

"Since last evening (Monday) there were six large aftershocks with a magnitude between 5.0 to 5.9 and the last was this morning (Tuesday)," said Burin Wechbunthung of the Meteorological Department, adding there were a dozen smaller tremors.

The 83-year-old woman died when a brick wall in her house collapsed after the quake struck on Monday, said Anusorn Kaewkangwan, the deputy director-general at the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department in Bangkok.

Anusorn said about 25 other people were slightly injured, mostly from fallen ceilings or items in their houses.

The quake damaged many homes, smashing windows and cracking walls. Huge cracks also opened up in roadways, and some Buddhist temples were damaged.

A well-known temple near the city, the all-white Wat Rongkhun, was closed due to safety concerns after the earthquake.

“The spire of the main building came off and the tiles on the roof fell off,'' Chalermchai Kositpiphat, the artist who designed the temple, told Nation TV. ``I still don't know how we can sleep tonight. ... It was shaking the whole time and then aftershocks followed four to five times."

Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP.