BANGKOK, Thailand – Officials said Tuesday that one person was killed and several dozen were hurt in an earthquake that struck northern Thailand and Myanmar a day earlier, smashing windows, cracking walls and roads and damaging Buddhist temples.
The airport in Chiang Rai, a northern Thai city near the epicenter of the shallow magnitude 6.3 temblor, evacuated people from its terminal, where display signs and pieces of the ceiling fell. There was no damage to the runway or flight disruptions, airport General Manager Damrong Klongakara said.
A well-known temple near the city, the all-white Wat Rong Khun, 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 Kositpipat, 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.”