The epicentre of the quake

Nguyen Thai Son, head of the Dien Bien seismic monitoring station saidthe quake struck at a little after 5 am in Muong Nhe district, about 120 kmfrom the centre of Dien Bien Phu city.

Nodamage is reported so far.

Halfof the tremors this year occurred in Muong Nhe district, and half in Dien BienDong district. The strongest one was measured at 4.0 and the weakest one 2.5.

Earthquakesare normal in the mountainous province of Dien Bien as it is situated on thefault systems of Dien Bien – Lai Chau and Song Ma – Son La.

Over the past 100 years, three big earthquakeswith magnitudes of over 5 on the Richter scale were recorded in Dien Bien, onein 1935 (magnitude of 6.9), another in 1983 (magnitude of 6.7) and the latestin 2001 (magnitude of 5.3).