Red Cross officials have confirmed two children were among the dead in the small town of Yenangyaung, Myanmar. "Two young girls died when a pagoda collapsed on a river bank," said Moe Thidar Win, deputy director of the disaster management team at the Myanmar Red Cross Society.

"One man died in a Pakokku tobacco factory when the roof collapsed on him."

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In Bagan, known as the 'City of 4 Million Pagodas', one female tourist was injured at a pagoda, said local official Khin Mya Lwin.

Seismic shockwaves from the 6.8 magnitude quake were so strong that they were felt in Bangkok around 620 miles away. Buildings shook in the Indian city of Kolkata, while the local underground railway was closed temporarily to safeguard against aftershocks.

At least 66 stupas in Bagan have been damaged, a spokesman from the department of archaeology told the BBC. The ancient capital is a popular tourist destination, with thousands of Buddhist monuments.

Local media reported that around 20 people were injured as workers stampeded out of a building, triggered by tremors that were felt in Bangladesh, which shares a border with Myanmar.

According to local MP Han Zaw Win, there was one fatality at Myanmar's Magway region, where the quake struck. "A 22-year-old man was killed when a nearby building collapsed during the earthquake," he told AFP, also adding that a woman was also injured.

Around 40 miles from the epicentre, the city felt "quite heavy shaking for about 10 seconds and [everyone] started to evacuate the building when there was another strong tremor", Vincent Panazani, who works for Save the Children in Pakoku, said in a Guardian report.

"Most of the reports of damage have been to the pagodas in the area with dozens impacted. There have also been reports of damage to smaller, more basic buildings including a collapsed wall and a destroyed roof. Several of our staff who have lived in this part of Myanmar their whole lives said it was the strongest earthquake they've ever felt," he added.

Videos posted on social media shows the tops of some pagodas crumbling in Bagan, with large clouds of dust swirled high up in the sky.

Earthquake