Thousands are feared dead after a huge earthquake hit Thailand and Myanmar this morning, destroying buildings and sparking fears that dams could collapse, leading to catastrophic flooding.
The US Geological Survey forecast thousands of losses after the 7.7 magnitude quake struck near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city early on Friday.
The shallow tremor struck central Myanmar at 13:20 local time (6:50GMT), and was followed minutes later by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock.
Officials at a major hospital in Naypyidaw, the capital, declared it a ‘mass casualty area’, with the death toll expected to rise after buildings fell and debris scattered.
‘I haven’t seen (something) like this before. We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted now,’ a doctor told the AFP news agency.
Professor Ian Main, Personal Chair in Seismology and Rock Physics, School of GeoSciences, at the University of Edinburgh said: ‘The damage is likely to be very severe near the epicentre- based on the estimated intensity of ground shaking above, and maps of population density and vulnerability of buildings.
‘The USGS ‘PAGER’ forecast loss is, sadly, most likely to be in the range 10,000-100,000 fatalities,’ he said, referring to the American agency’s earthquake impact report.
The force caused a mosque in Mandalay to collapse, with at least ten worshippers reported to have been killed.
More than 20 children are also believed to be trapped in a destroyed school in Taungoo, central Myanmar.
Shocking footage showed workers fleeing in neighbouring Thailand as a 30-storey high-rise building under construction in Bangkok collapsed around them.
At least three people were killed as the skyscraper toppled. Local authorities said that dozens of workers have been rescued from the site, though 90 are still missing.
In Thailand, a mushroom cloud of dust and debris swept through the streets of northern Bangkok as a high-rise building still under construction was brought down by the quake.
Workers in hard hats and orange hi-vis jackets were engulfed by dust as the concrete stack fell, with dozens who couldn’t get away trapped under the rubble.
‘I heard people calling for help, saying ‘help me’,’ Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bang Sue district, told AFP.
‘I fear many lives have been lost. We have never experienced an earthquake with such a devastating impact before.’
Rescuers at the collapse site were dwarfed by an enormous mound of rubble and tangled metal struts, just metres from the bustling Chatuchak Market, popular with tourists.
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters that at least three workers had been killed, with 81 more trapped inside when the building came down.
Startled residents across the city were evacuated down staircases of high-rise buildings and hotels after the earthquake hit around 1.30pm local time.
They remained in the streets, seeking shade from the midday sun in the minutes after the quake.
Chelsea King, a British expat living in Bangkok, told that she was ushered away from her building by security guards as the initial quake struck.
She said she could see ‘towering skyscrapers … visibly swaying’.
‘Many of these buildings are condos or hotels with rooftop pools, and water was cascading down like waterfalls due to the force of the tremors.
‘The street was chaotic, with people running out of buildings, carrying pets and children, shouting in panic.
‘I was in shock, unable to process what I was seeing – it felt like something out of a disaster film.’
When they were finally allowed back in, she was able to rescue her cat, Mo, and pack a small bag of necessities before escaping down eight flights of stairs.
Chelsea was fortunate that her building ‘appears undamaged’. But she says friends are unable to return to their homes due to structural damage.
‘My partner, who teaches on the city’s outskirts, is also struggling to get back home, with the BTS and MRT [metro system] shut down and the roads at a standstill.’
Kelly Rhodes, a tourist staying at the Okura Prestige in Bangkok, told they were evacuated down 24 flights of stairs when the quake struck.
As airlines began to halt some flights, she said: ‘We are now trying to organise flights out but it’s chaos.’
‘We can’t get out of the city. Traffic is at a standstill total gridlock.’
The earthquake was forceful enough to send water sloshing out of pools, some high above the street in high-rises, as the tremor shook.
Witnesses in Bangkok said people ran out onto the streets in panic, many of them hotel guests in bathrobes and swimming costumes as water cascaded down from an elevated pool at a luxury hotel.
‘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 thousands of others in downtown Bangkok, Morton sought refuge in Benjasiri Park – away from the tall buildings all around.
‘I got outside and then looked up at the building and the whole building was moving, dust and debris, it was pretty intense,’ he said. ‘Lots of chaos.’
At a 1,000-bed general hospital in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, rows of wounded were treated outside the emergency department, some writhing in pain, others lying still as relatives sought to comfort them.
‘About 20 people died after they arrived at our hospital so far. Many people were injured,’ said a doctor at the hospital, who requested anonymity.
The quake also damaged religious shrines in the capital, sending parts toppling to the ground, and some homes.
In Mandalay, the country’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.
The Red Cross warned that there was still concern for the state of large dams, exposing risk of flooding.
‘Public infrastructure has been damaged, including roads, bridges and public buildings,’ Marie Manrique, Program Coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross told reporters.
‘We currently have concerns for large-scale dams that people are watching to see the conditions of them,’ she said.
‘The bridge that connects Mandalay to Sagaing has collapsed – this will cause logistical issues. Sagaing has the largest number of internally displaced people in the country.’
The earthquake hit Myanmar as it contests with a four-year civil war.
The devastation prompted a rare request for international aid from the country’s isolated military junta, which has lost swathes of territory to armed groups, as it declared a state of emergency across the six worst-affected regions.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday the 27-nation bloc stood ready to help after a strong, deadly earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand.
‘Heartbreaking scenes from Myanmar and Thailand after the devastating earthquake. My thoughts are with the victims and their families,’ von der Leyen wrote on X. ‘Europe’s Copernicus satellites are already helping first responders. We are ready to provide more support.’
Tremors were also felt in China’s southwest Yunnan province, according to Beijing’s quake agency, which said the jolt measured 7.9 in magnitude.
Earthquakes are relatively common in Myanmar, where six strong quakes of 7.0 magnitude or more struck between 1930 and 1956 near the Sagaing Fault, which runs north to south through the centre of the country, according to the USGS.
A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake in the ancient capital Bagan in central Myanmar killed three people in 2016, also toppling spires and crumbling temple walls at the tourist destination.
The breakneck pace of development in Myanmar’s cities, combined with crumbling infrastructure and poor urban planning, has also made the country’s most populous areas vulnerable to earthquakes and other disasters, experts say.
The impoverished Southeast Asian nation has a strained medical system, especially in its rural states.