Motorists pick up pieces of a damaged road in Naypyidaw on March 28, after an earthquake in central Myanmar. A powerful earthquake rocked central Myanmar on March 28, buckling roads in capital Naypyidaw, damaging buildings and forcing people to flee into the streets in neighbouring Thailand.
Image: AFP
A strong and lengthy tremor in troubled Myanmar was felt by residents in the Thai capital, Bangkok, on Friday, with buildings swaying and shops and offices evacuated.
Latest online reports coming through confirm that one person was killed, and an unknown number of others injured and/or trapped, when a large building in Chatuchak Park area, a public park in the southwest part of Chatuchak District, Bangkok, collapsed.
There are no other immediate reports on casualties or damage.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s prime minister declared Bangkok an emergency zone, warning of possible aftershocks.
The strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked the Thai capital and Germany’s GFZ centre for geosciences said it was a shallow 10 kilometers, with an epicentre in neighbouring Myanmar, according to latest reports. Myanmar, ill equipped to deal with the disaster, not only suffered from the 7.7 magnitude earthquake but a short while after an aftershock measuring 6.4 magnitude hit it.
Tremors were felt as far as Bangkok, swayed buildings in the central business area. Stories on TikTok say that the tremor was also felt in Chiang Mai and Pattaya.
A South African living in Bangkok, Anton S described on a FaceBook post that the earthquake's ripple effects were terrifying.
“I experienced the earthquake from 38th floor of my Condo just now - it had to be one of the most terrifying moments of my life ... When I started hearing this bizarre noise coming through the roof and building, followed by cracks in my walls and ceiling, and seconds later, feeling the entire building swaying like it was about to fall over . . It was scary.“
He said all 47 floors of apartments evacuated on foot in such a calm and orderly way.
Meanwhile @beardedtravels in a TikTok shows utter shock as he realised he was in the middle of an earthquake.
@felipejcardenas said: "I was in Chiang Mai Airport and everybody started to run".
@baibondesu video on TikTok shows people running for safety. Other TikTok videos have started emerging showing the terrifying moments as roof-top pools exploded from the impact and gushed over high-rise buildings.
The fear is palpable in these videos with screams, as people sought to console each other.
This is a developing story.
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