A 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar on Friday, sending shock waves across a vast expanse of Southeast Asia and causing deaths and damage hundreds of miles away from the epicenter.
The earthquake shook buildings in neighboring Thailand and China, and rattled bridges and homes as far away as Vietnam. At least 23 people have died, and the death toll is expected to rise, especially in Myanmar, where the injured are arriving at hospitals in the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay.
While the scale of damage in Thailand and other countries is slowly becoming clearer, censorship imposed by Myanmar’s military government has limited the spread of information from the heart of the disaster.
Here’s what you need to know:
Where was the epicenter?
The quake struck near Mandalay, in central Myanmar, at roughly 12:50 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Approximately 12 minutes later, an aftershock with a magnitude of 6.4 hit the same area.