A powerful earthquake centred in Myanmar struck Southeast Asia on Friday, causing extensive damage, killing several people, and leaving rescuers in Bangkok searching for 81 individuals trapped in a collapsed building.
Over 100 Killed In Myanmar
At least 144 people in Myanmar have been killed and 732 injured by the strong 7.7-magnitude earthquake, state-run MRTV said on the Telegram messaging app on Friday.
At least three people were killed by the earthquake in the town of Taungoo in Myanmar when a mosque partially collapsed, witnesses said, while local media reported that at least two people died and 20 were injured after a hotel collapsed in Aung Ban.
Destruction In Neighbouring Thailand
In Thailand, the defence minister said rescuers were searching for 81 people trapped in the rubble of a skyscraper that was under construction and collapsed into a pile of rubble.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said there had been three deaths at the building site. He warned of possible aftershocks but urged people to be calm and said the situation was largely under control.
Powerful Quake
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which struck at lunchtime, was of 7.7 magnitude and at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). The epicentre was about 17 km from the Myanmar city of Mandalay, which has a population of about 1.5 million.
The quake was followed by a powerful aftershock and several more moderate ones.
“We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking,” a resident of Mandalay told Reuters. “I witnessed a five-storey building collapse in front of my eyes. Everyone in my town is out on the road and no one dares to go back inside buildings.”
Buildings Severely Damaged
The quake caused the collapse of buildings in five cities and towns, as well as a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway, Myanmar state media said.
Images showed the destroyed Ava Bridge over the Irrawaddy River, its arches leaning into the water.
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.
Damages In Epicentre
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.
Local media outlet Myanmar Now posted images showing that a clock tower had collapsed and part of the wall by Mandalay Palace was in ruins. A witness in the city, Htet Naing Oo, told Reuters that a tea shop had collapsed with several people trapped inside. “We couldn’t go in,” she said. “The situation is very bad.”
At least three people died after a mosque in Taungoo partially collapsed, two eyewitnesses told Reuters.
“We were saying prayers when the shaking started… Three died on the spot,” said one of two people who spoke to Reuters.
Local media reported a hotel in Aung Ban, in Shan state, crumbled into rubble, with one outlet, the Democratic Voice of Burma, reporting two people had died and 20 were trapped.
The army-run MRTV reported that the quake toppled buildings, crushed cars and left massive fissures on roads across the capital, Naypyitaw.
Myanmar In Trouble
Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher, Joe Freeman, said the earthquake could not have come at a worse time for Myanmar, given the number of displaced people, the existing need for relief aid and cuts by the Trump administration to U.S. aid that have affected humanitarian aid.
Freeman said restricted media access meant there might not be a clear picture of the extent of damage and loss for some time.
Since overthrowing the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run the country, leaving the economy and basic services like healthcare in tatters.
An armed opposition, comprising established ethnic armies and new resistance groups formed since the coup, has seized swathes of territory and driven the junta out of border areas, increasingly hemming it into the central lowlands.
The fighting has displaced more than three million people in Myanmar, with widespread food insecurity and over a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.
The country has also been hit by a number of natural disasters in recent years, including Typhoon Yagi last year and Cyclone Mocha in 2023, and the internationally isolated junta has struggled to respond adequately.
Office Tower Shakes In Bangkok
In the Thai capital, 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, witnesses said.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand suspended all trading activities for the Friday afternoon session.
One office tower in downtown Bangkok swayed from side to side for at least two minutes, with doors and windows creaking loudly, witnesses said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
