BANGKOK (AP) — A robust earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand on Friday, destroying buildings, a bridge and a dam. Not less than 144 folks had been killed in Myanmar, the place photographs and video from two hard-hit cities confirmed intensive injury. Not less than eight died within the Thai capital, the place a high-rise beneath development collapsed.
The 7.7 magnitude quake, with an epicenter close to Mandalay, Myanmar ’s second largest metropolis, struck at noon and was adopted by a powerful 6.4 magnitude aftershock.
The total extent of dying, harm and destruction was not instantly clear — notably in Myanmar, one of many world’s poorest international locations. It’s embroiled in a civil warfare and data is tightly managed.
The pinnacle of Myanmar’s army authorities stated within the televised speech on Friday night that a minimum of 144 folks had been killed and 730 others had been injured.
“The death toll and injuries are expected to rise,” Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing stated.
Pictures from the capital of Naypyidaw confirmed a number of buildings used to deal with civil servants destroyed by the quake, and rescue crews pulling victims from the rubble.
Myanmar’s authorities stated blood was in excessive demand within the hardest-hit areas. Photographs of buckled and cracked roads in Mandalay and broken highways in addition to the collapse of a bridge and dam raised additional issues about how rescuers would even attain some areas in a rustic already enduring a widespread humanitarian disaster.
Close to Bangkok’s standard Chatuchak market, a 33-story constructing beneath development, with a crane on high, crumpled right into a cloud of mud, and onlookers could possibly be seen screaming and operating in a video posted on social media.
The sound of sirens echoed all through central Bangkok and autos stuffed the streets, leaving a few of the metropolis’s already congested streets gridlocked. The elevated speedy transit system and subway shut down.
Whereas the world the place the quake struck is susceptible to earthquakes, they’re often not so large and it’s uncommon for them to be felt within the Thai capital, which sits on a river delta and is at reasonable threat for quakes.
April Kanichawanakul, who works in an workplace constructing in Bangkok, initially didn’t even understand it was an earthquake, the primary she’d ever skilled. “I just thought I was dizzy,” she stated.
She and her colleagues ran downstairs from the tenth ground of their constructing and waited exterior for a sign that it was protected to return in.
Crane-topped constructing collapsed in a cloud of mud
In Bangkok, a minimum of three folks had been killed within the constructing collapse and 90 had been lacking, in keeping with Protection Minister Phumtham Wechayachai. He provided no extra particulars in regards to the ongoing rescue efforts however first responders stated that seven folks had been rescued so removed from the world.
Not less than two of the lifeless had been development staff who had been killed by falling rubble or particles, rescue employee Songwut Wangpon instructed reporters. The constructing was being constructed by the China Railway Development Company for Thailand’s authorities auditor normal.
Elsewhere, folks in Bangkok evacuated from their buildings had been cautioned to remain exterior in case there have been extra aftershocks.
The U.S. Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ heart for geosciences stated the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), in keeping with preliminary studies. Shallower earthquakes are likely to trigger extra injury.
Screaming and panic as buildings swayed
Bangkok’s metropolis corridor declared the town a catastrophe space to facilitate the response. The larger metropolitan space is dwelling to greater than 17 million folks, lots of whom dwell in high-rise residences.
“All of a sudden the whole building began to move. Immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic,” stated Fraser Morton, a vacationer from Scotland, who was in one among Bangkok’s many malls.
“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.”
Like Morton, hundreds of individuals poured into Benjasiri Park from close by procuring malls, excessive rises and residence buildings alongside Bangkok’s busy Sukhumvit Highway.
Many had been on telephones making an attempt to succeed in family members as others sought shade from the recent early afternoon solar.
Voranoot Thirawat, a lawyer working in central Bangkok, stated her first indication that one thing was mistaken got here when she noticed a light-weight swinging forwards and backwards. Then she heard the constructing creaking because it moved forwards and backwards.
She and her colleagues ran down 12 flights of stairs. “In my lifetime, there was no earthquake like this in Bangkok,” she stated.
Paul Vincent, a vacationer visiting from England, was at a streetside bar when the quake struck.
As he got here onto the road himself, he stated he noticed a high-rise constructing swaying and water falling from a rooftop pool.
“There was people crying in the streets and, you know, the panic was horrendous really,” he stated.
Bridge and monastery collapse and dam bursts in Myanmar
In Mandalay, the earthquake reportedly introduced down a number of buildings, together with the Ma Soe Yane monastery, one of many largest within the metropolis, and broken the previous royal palace. In the meantime, Christian Assist stated its companions and colleagues on the bottom reported {that a} dam burst within the metropolis, inflicting water ranges to rise within the lowland areas within the space.
A video posted on-line confirmed robed monks on the street capturing video of the multistory monastery earlier than it out of the blue fell into the bottom. It was not instantly clear whether or not anybody was harmed.
Within the Sagaing area simply southwest of the town, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and a few sections of the freeway connecting Mandalay and Myanmar’s largest metropolis, Yangon, had been additionally broken.
The army seized energy from the elected authorities of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, and is now concerned in a bloody civil warfare with long-established militias and newly fashioned pro-democracy ones.
Authorities forces have misplaced management of a lot of Myanmar, and plenty of locations are extremely harmful to entry or just out of attain for help teams. Greater than 3 million folks have been displaced by the combating and practically 20 million are in want, in keeping with the United Nations.
The Purple Cross stated downed energy traces added to challenges for his or her groups making an attempt to succeed in a number of hard-hit areas.
“This disaster will have left people devastated and in need of drinking water, food and shelter,” stated Julie Mehigan, head of Asia, Center East & Europe for Christian Assist. “Myanmar is one of the least developed countries in the world. Even before this heartbreaking earthquake, we know conflict and displacement has left countless people in real need.”
Myanmar’s authorities declared a state of emergency in six areas and states together with the capital Naypyitaw and Mandalay. It was not clear what the declaration meant because the complete nation has been beneath a state of emergency since 2021.
Residents in Yangon rushed out of their properties when the quake struck. Within the capital Naypyitaw, the quake broken some properties and spiritual shrines, sending components toppling to the bottom.
Accidents reported in China
To the northeast, the earthquake was felt in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China and prompted injury to homes and accidents within the metropolis of Ruili on the border with Myanmar, in keeping with Chinese language media studies.
Movies that one outlet stated it had obtained from an individual in Ruili confirmed constructing particles littering a avenue and an individual being wheeled in a stretcher towards an ambulance.
The shaking in Mangshi, a Chinese language metropolis about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Ruili, was so robust that individuals couldn’t stand, one resident instructed The Paper, an internet media outlet.
Adam Schreck, Haruka Naga, Jerry Harmer, Grant Peck and Penny Wang in Bangkok, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.
