UPDATED 19.22

TWO PEOPLE HAVE been reportedly killed in two earthquakes that hit a rural area in Burma/Myanmar.

The US Geological Survey is reporting that the 6.8-magnitude quakes hit an area close to the country’s borders with Laos and Thailand. They happened just seconds apart at 1.55pm Irish time (8.55pm local time). The first had the most impact as it hit at just 10km underground, while the second was 230km underground.

One of the two people reported dead is a child, a Myanmar official told AFP news agency. The deaths were thought to have happened in Tachileik town in Burma when a building collapsed.

Responses to the USGS appeal for reports on where the tremors were felt indicate that they were experienced by people as far away as Bangkok in Thailand, Luang Prabang in Laos and the Yunnan province in China. Reuters reports that people were evacuated from tall buildings in Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam, and the Bangkok Post reports that people felt buildings in that city sway.

The quakes hit a rural, mountainous region that has a very small population.

Reports have emerged of several aftershocks in the two hours following the initial quakes – Scandasia.com says these were felt in nearby Chiang Rai in Thailand.