Damages from quake in Phuket surveyed

BANGKOK, April 17 (TNA) - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has ordered a survey on damages from an earthquake in Thailand's southern Andaman Phuket province on Monday and told concerned authorities to improve warning systems. Before leaving for her official visit to China and Japan Tuesday morning, Yingluck told journalists that she has instructed the concerned authorities to closely monitor developments in Phuket, after the earthquake with a magnitude of 4.3 on the Richter’s scale jolted the southern Thai resort island Monday afternoon. Yingluck said that she has also assigned Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit to conduct a survey on buildings in the quake-hit southern Thai Andaman province, where there are a lot of old structures and has asked people to follow up relevant news reports. Yingluck promised that the authorities concerned will improve the warning systems, which did not function well in response to the April 16 tremor; while recommending people to use short messaging, instead of making phone calls in such an incident because mobile phone networks were apparently overloaded with excessive calls. The Thai premier insisted that the concerned parties have been told to guarantee the efficiency of everything and the government may have its own network, set to be in good place as soon as possible, for the sake of swift communications in case of any emergency. (TNA)