An under-construction high-rise building in Bangkok collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Thailand and neighboring Myanmar on Mar. 28.
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.
Warning: Video contains scenes which some viewers may find distressing.
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A video of the incident showed passersby running away as the building collapsed.
While Bangkok police told the Associated Press that officers were responding to the scene, they did not know just how many people were working on the construction site at the time of the incident.
Although there were no immediate reports of casualties, in an update from the BBC, it is believed that 43 construction workers are missing after the 30-storey building collapsed.
Seven workers managed to escape while 43 others remained trapped, the National Institute for Emergency Medicine said in a Facebook post.
Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bang Sue district, told AFP: “When I arrived to inspect the site, I heard people calling for help, saying help me.”
The midday temblor was followed by a strong 6.4 magnitude aftershock, and people in Bangkok evacuated from their buildings were cautioned to stay outside in case there were more.
“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.”
According to local reports, the Ava Bridge in Myanmar also collapsed due to the earthquake, and another video posted to Twitter showed a Bangkok tower building’s rooftop pool splashing down the side of the building as it swayed.
Witnesses in Bangkok told Reuters that even hotel guests in bathrobes and swimming costumes were seen running out onto the streets in panic.
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An officer from the Myanmar Fire Services Department told Reuters there is an active search for casualties in the city.
They said: “We have started the search and going around Yangon to check for casualties and damage. So far, we have no information yet.”
Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention explained that the Myanmar earthquake was felt in almost all regions of the country.
While it’s not confirmed just how much damage has been caused in Myanmar, as the country is battling a civil war, reports state that in the capital of Naypyidaw, some homes and religious shrines were affected.
As per the US Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ Centre for Geosciences, the 7.7 magnitude earthquake had an epicentre at a depth of 6.2 miles below ground, and 12 minutes after the initial quake, a second one hit, which was registered at 6.4 on the Richter scale.
As for why the skyscraper fell, the BBC reports earthquakes are rare in Thailand, so their buildings are not constructed to withstand them.
Source: unilad.com; mothership.sg