A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook the remote mountain nation of Bhutan on Monday, killing at least 11 people, damaging an ancient monastery and forcing hundreds to flee, officials said. At least 15 people were also injured.
The afternoon earthquake was initially reported in Gauhati, the capital of India's northeastern Assam state, but it was centered in a little-populated eastern region of the tiny nation of Bhutan.
Much of Bhutan, a Himalayan nation sandwiched between India and China, is sparsely populated, reachable only by walking paths and without electricity or telephones.
"We're trying to piece together information to assess the damage," Ugyen Tenzing, the country's director of disaster management said from Thimphu, Bhutan's capital.
He said at least seven people were killed when their houses collapsed in the eastern districts of Munggar and Trashigang, and rescuers were searching for survivors under the debris of other buildings. Most buildings in that region are small farmhouses made by hand from mud and stone.
Four Indian highway workers were also killed in Bhutan's Samdrup Jhongkar district, near the border with India, when the road they were working on collapsed, Tenzing said, adding that at least 15 people had been injured across the earthquake zone.
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