A 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Thailand and neighbouring Myanmar midday on Friday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed, and prompting Myanmar to declare a widespread state of emergency.
The midday temblor with an epicentre near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, was followed by a strong 6.4 magnitude aftershock.
Myanmar’s military-run government declared a state of emergency in six regions and states including the capital Naypyitaw and Mandalay, but with the country in the midst of a prolonged bloody civil war it was not clear how help would get to many regions.
The Red Cross said downed power lines are adding to challenges for their teams trying to reach Mandalay and Sagaing regions and southern Shan state.
“Initial reports from the ground suggest the earthquake has caused significant damage,” the Red Cross said. “Information on humanitarian needs is still being gathered.”
Crane-topped building collapsed in a cloud of dust
In Bangkok, a construction worker was killed when rubble from the collapsing building site hit his truck and another was crushed by the falling debris, rescue worker Songwut Wangpon told reporters.
Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said in all three people were killed at the site and 90 are missing. He offered no more details about the ongoing rescue efforts but first responders said that seven people had been rescued so far from outside the collapsed building.
Rescue workers say the rubble is still too unstable for them to try and find people possibly trapped beneath.
A dramatic video of the building’s collapse near Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market circulated on social media showed the multi-story building with a crane on top toppling into a cloud of dust, while onlookers screamed and ran.
Elsewhere, people in Bangkok evacuated from their buildings were cautioned to stay outside in case there were more aftershocks.
The US Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to preliminary reports.
Screaming and panic as buildings swayed
The sound of sirens echoed throughout central Bangkok and vehicles filled the street, leaving some of the city’s already congested streets gridlocked. The elevated rapid transit system and subway were shut down.
City hall declared the city a disaster area to facilitate interagency aid and emergency help. The greater Bangkok area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.
April Kanichawanakul, who works in an office building in Bangkok’s city center, at first didn’t even realize it was an earthquake, the first she’d ever experienced. “I just thought I was dizzy,” she said.
She and her colleagues ran downstairs from the tenth floor of their building, Tonson Tower, and waited outside for a signal that it was safe to go back in.
“All of a sudden the whole building began to move. Immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic,” said Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, who was in one of Bangkok’s many malls shopping for camera equipment.
“I just started walking calmly at first but then the building started really moving, yeah, a lot of screaming, a lot of panic, people running the wrong way down the escalators, lots of banging and crashing inside the mall.”
Like Morton, thousands of people poured into Benjasiri Park from nearby shopping malls, high rises and apartment buildings along Bangkok’s busy Sukhumvit Road.
Many were on phones trying to reach loved ones as others sought shade from the hot early afternoon sun. Others stared up fearfully at the tall buildings in the densely packed part of the city.
“I got outside and then looked up at the building and the whole building was moving, dust and debris, it was pretty intense,” Morton said. “Lots of chaos.”
Voranoot Thirawat, a lawyer working in central Bangkok, said her first indication that something was wrong came when she saw a light swinging back and forth. Then she heard the building creaking as it moved back and forth from the shockwaves.
She and her colleagues ran down 12 flights of stairs. “In my lifetime, there was no earthquake like this in Bangkok,” she said.
Paul Vincent, a tourist visiting from England, was at a streetside bar when the quake struck.
“The next thing, everybody came on the street, so there was a lot of screaming and panicking, which obviously made it a lot worse,” he said.
As he came onto the street himself, he said he saw a high-rise building swaying and water falling from a rooftop pool.
“When I saw the building, oh my God, that’s when … it hit me,” he said. “There was people crying in the streets and, you know, the panic was horrendous really.”
Bridge collapses in Myanmar and injuries reported in China
In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city and close to the epicenter, the earthquake damaged part of the former royal palace and buildings, according to videos and photos released on Facebook social media.
While the area is prone to earthquakes, it is generally sparsely populated, and most houses are low-rise structures.
In the Sagaing region just southwest of Mandalay, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and some sections of the highway connecting Mandalay and Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, were also damaged.
Residents in Yangon rushed out of their homes when the quake struck. There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths.
In the capital Naypyitaw, the quake damaged religious shrines, sending parts toppling to the ground, and some homes.
To the northeast, the earthquake was felt in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China and caused damage to houses and injuries in the city of Ruili on the border with Myanmar, according to Chinese media reports.
Videos that one outlet said it had received from a person in Ruili showed building debris littering a street and a person being wheeled in a stretcher toward an ambulance.
The shaking in Mangshi, a Chinese city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Ruili, was so strong that people couldn’t stand, one resident told The Paper, an online media outlet.
A resident of Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan, told The Paper that her ceiling lamp was swinging wildly and the shaking lasted more than 10 seconds.
Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention said the quake was felt in almost all regions of the country.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called an emergency meeting to assess the impact of the quake. (PTI)
