A powerful earthquake killed at least 144 people across Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, toppling buildings and bridges and trapping over 80 workers in an under-construction skyscraper in Bangkok.
The shallow 7.7-magnitude tremor hit northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar, and was followed minutes later by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock.
The quake’s devastation prompted a rare request for international aid from Myanmar’s isolated military junta, which has lost swathes of territory to armed groups. A state of emergency was declared across the six worst-affected regions.
At least 144 people in Myanmar were killed and 732 injured by a major earthquake that struck the country on Friday, state-run MRTV said on the Telegram messaging app.
Across the border in Thailand, three people were confirmed dead in the collapse of a skyscraper, with 81 more missing and believed trapped in the twisted metal and rubble of the under-construction building.
Myanmar looked to have borne the brunt of the quake, with hundreds of casualties flooding a hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw. The emergency department’s entrance had collapsed onto a car, with medics treating patients outside.
A hospital official ushered journalists away, saying: “This is a mass casualty area.”
“I haven’t seen [something] like this before. We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted now,” a doctor told AFP.
AFP reporters saw junta chief Min Aung Hlaing arrive at the hospital as the ruling military called for foreign help.
“We want the international community to give humanitarian aid as soon as possible,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP at the hospital.
The rare plea from the junta raises the prospect that damage and casualties may be on a large scale, with Myanmar’s medical system and infrastructure ravaged by four years of civil war.
The quake will further stretch Myanmar’s ruling military, which is fighting a civil war against an armed uprising. The junta declared a state of emergency in multiple regions but provided no specifics of damage or injuries.
“The state will make inquiries on the situation quickly and conduct rescue operations along with providing humanitarian aid,” it said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Red Cross said roads, bridges and buildings had been damaged in Myanmar, and there were concerns for the state of large dams.
Mandalay is Myanmar’s ancient royal capital and at the centre of the country’s Buddhist heartland.
Social media posts showed collapsed buildings and debris strewn across streets in the city. Reuters could not immediately verify the posts.
Skyscraper collapse
In Thailand, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters at least three workers had been killed, with 81 more trapped, after the collapse of a building under construction near the sprawling Chatuchak market.
Rescuers were surveying the tangle of rubble and twisted metal for a safe way to search for survivors, an AFP photographer at the scene said.
“I heard people calling for help, saying ‘help me’,” Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bang Sue district, told AFP.
“We estimate that hundreds of people are injured,” he said.
Across Bangkok and the northern tourist destination of Chiang Mai, where the power briefly went out, stunned residents hurried outside, unsure of how to respond to the unusual quake.
“I quickly rushed out of the shop along with other customers,” said Sai, 76, who was working at a minimart in Chiang Mai when the shop started to shake.
“This is the strongest tremor I’ve experienced in my life.”
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