Quake hits Myanmar, no damage - Thai official

BANGKOK, May 12 (Reuters) An earthquake with a magnitude 5.4 on the Richter Scale struck western Myanmar, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, a Thai official said today.

The quake struck at 1727 GMT yesterday, or just before midnight Myanmar time, about 230 km northwest of Mandalay, the Hong Kong Observatory said earlier.

A spokesman for Thailand's Meteorological Dept. said the tremors hit 162 km south of Imphal on the Myanmar-India border.

''No damage or casualties have been reported so far,'' the spokesman told Reuters.

The former Burma's thinly populated northeastern and northwestern regions are quake-prone.

Reuters SI GC0916