The shallow 7.7-magnitude tremor hit northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar, and was followed minutes later by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock.
“About 20 people” were confirmed dead at a hospital in Naypyidaw, a doctor told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Myanmar looked to have borne the brunt of the quake, with hundreds of casualties flooding a hospital in the capital Naypyidaw. The emergency department’s entrance had collapsed onto a car, with medics treating patients outside.
“I haven’t seen (something) like this before. We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted now,“ a doctor told AFP.
“We want the international community to give humanitarian aid as soon as possible,“ junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP at the hospital.
Skyscraper collapse
Rescuers were surveying the tangle of rubble and twisted metal for a safe way to search for survivors, an AFP photographer at the scene said.
“We estimate that hundreds of people are injured,“ he said.
“I quickly rushed out of the shop along with other customers,“ said Sai, 76, who was working at a minimart in Chiang Mai when the shop started to shake.
Buildings damaged
The streets of the capital were full of commuters attempting to walk home, or simply taking refuge in the entrances of malls and office buildings.
The quake was felt across the region, with China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and India all reporting tremors.
A livestream broadcast by the state-linked Beijing News showed around a dozen emergency workers in orange jumpsuits and helmets on a street strewn with fallen masonry in the city of Ruili, on the Chinese border with Myanmar.
Earthquakes are relatively common in Myanmar, where six strong quakes of 7.0 magnitude or more struck between 1930 and 1956 near the Sagaing Fault, which runs north to south through the centre of the country, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake in the ancient capital Bagan in central Myanmar killed three people in 2016, also toppling spires and crumbling temple walls at the tourist destination.
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