An intense day of emergency is underway in Asia following a violent 7.7 magnitude earthquake that shook vast regions of Myanmar, southern China and northern Thailand early Monday morning , leaving a preliminary toll of dozens dead, hundreds injured and numerous people trapped under the rubble.

The quake struck at 3:42 a.m. local time , with its epicenter in a mountainous area on the border between Myanmar and Yunnan Province, China , at a depth of approximately 10 kilometers, according to data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The quake was also strongly felt in the cities of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai in Thailand, where mass evacuations were reported.