Massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocks Thailand, Burma, collapsing buildings and killing more than 1,000
A massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake rattled Thailand and Burma on Friday, causing buildings to collapse and leaving more than 1,000 dead across both countries.
The country’s military-led government said in a statement that 1,002 people have now been found dead and another 2,376 injured, with 30 others missing. The statement suggested the numbers could still rise, saying “detailed figures are still being collected.”
Dramatic footage captured in Bangkok midday Friday showed a 33-story apartment building that was under construction falling down, scattering dust and debris throughout the city’s streets. Bangkok city authorities said earlier Friday that 10 people were killed, 16 were injured and 101 are missing from three construction sites, including the high-rise.
The earthquake’s epicenter was in central Burma and aftershocks were reportedly felt in India and China. Photos and video from Burma showed two hard-hit cities with extensive damage.
One aftershock was reported to have been 6.4 magnitude, according to the United States Geological Survey. People in Bangkok that were evacuated from their buildings were cautioned to stay outside in case there were more.
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The head of Burma’s military government said in a televised speech Friday evening that at least 144 people were killed and 730 others were injured.
“The death toll and injuries are expected to rise,” Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said, according to the Associated Press.
In Bangkok, Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said 90 people were missing in the wake of the building collapse.
Near Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market, the 33-story building under construction, with a crane on top, crumpled into a cloud of dust, and onlookers could be seen screaming and running in other videos posted to social media.
Officials there 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 told the AP.
“All of a sudden the whole building began to move. Immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic,” added 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.”
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The U.S. Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 6.2 miles, with an epicenter in central Burma, according to preliminary reports.
Water from high-rise rooftop pools in Bangkok sloshed over the side as they shook, and debris fell from many buildings.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called an emergency meeting to assess the impact of the quake, which Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention said was felt in almost all regions of the country.
In Mandalay, Burma’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.
In the Sagaing region just southwest of Mandalay, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and some sections of the highway connecting Mandalay and the city of Yangon were also damaged.
In the capital Naypyitaw, the quake damaged religious shrines, sending parts toppling to the ground, and some homes.
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There are reportedly 188 people injured so far in Tibet on the Chinese side of the border, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.