Jacob Phillips and Bill Bowkett
A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand on Friday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed.
Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, amid fears the disaster could have claimed thousands of lives in the civil war-torn country.
The 7.7 magnitude quake, with an epicentre near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday local time and was followed by a strong 6.4 magnitude aftershock.
The extent of the death, injury and destruction - especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a brutal civil war that has already caused a widespread humanitarian crisis - was not yet clear. Myanmar’s government said blood was in high demand in the hardest-hit areas, and videos from the country showed multiple collapsed houses and buckled and cracked roads.
A dramatic video of the building’s collapse near Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market showed the multistory building with a crane on top toppling into a cloud of dust, while onlookers screamed and ran.
The US Geological Survey said the initial tremor was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). A second quake, with a magnitude of 6.4, shook the area 12 minutes later.
The USGS said thousands could be dead in Myanmar and the disaster “is likely widespread”.
Myanmar’s military-run government declared a state of emergency in six regions and states including the capital Naypyitaw and Mandalay. It was not clear what the declaration meant since the entire country has been under a state of emergency since 2021, when the army seized power.
The Red Cross said downed power lines added 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.”
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 were missing. He offered no more details about the ongoing rescue efforts but first responders said that seven people had been rescued so far from the area.
Rescue workers say the rubble is still too unstable for them to try and find people possibly trapped beneath.
Water from high-rise rooftop pools in Bangkok sloshed over the side as they shook, and debris fell from many buildings.
A dramatic video circulated on social media showed the multi-story building with a crane on top collapsing into a cloud of dust, while onlookers screamed and ran.
Bangkok city hall says Thailand's capital has been declared a disaster area.
The greater Bangkok area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.
Alarms went off in buildings as the quake hit around 1.30pm and startled residents were evacuated down staircases of apartment blocks and hotels in densely populated central Bangkok.
They remained in the streets, seeking shade from the midday sun in the minutes after the earthquake.
“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.
“There was people crying in the streets and, you know, the panic was horrendous really."
Fraser Morton, from Scotland, was in one of Bangkok's malls shopping for camera equipment when he felt the ground shake.
“I got outside and then looked up at the building and the whole building was moving, dust and debris, it was pretty intense,” he recalled.
“All of a sudden the whole building began to move. Immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic.
“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."
Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention said the earthquake was felt in almost all regions of the country.
In Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, the earthquake damaged religious shrines, sending parts toppling to the ground, and some homes.
In the country’s Bago region, at least three people were killed after a mosque partially collapsed.
Social media posts from Mandalay showed collapsed buildings and debris strewn across streets.
Witnesses contacted in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city with around five million people, said many people ran out from buildings.
Further reports of damage were not immediately available from Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war ignited by the 2021 military coup.
Earthquakes are more common in Myanmar, compared to Thailand.
Between 1930 and 1956, there where six quakes of 7.0 magnitude near the Sagaing Fault, which runs though Myanmar.
