BANGKOK — A robust earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand on Friday, destroying buildings, bridges and a monastery. At the least 144 individuals had been killed in Myanmar, the place images and video from two hard-hit cities confirmed in depth harm. At the least 10 died within the Thai capital, the place a high-rise below building collapsed.
The complete extent of demise, harm and destruction was not instantly clear — significantly in Myanmar, one of many world’s poorest nations. It’s embroiled in a civil battle, and data is tightly managed.
Learn Extra: Photos Show Devastating Impact of Powerful Earthquake That Rocked Myanmar and Thailand
“The demise toll and accidents are anticipated to rise,” the pinnacle of Myanmar’s navy authorities, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing mentioned as he introduced on tv that at the very least 144 individuals had been killed and 730 others had been injured in his nation.
In Thailand, Bangkok metropolis authorities mentioned 10 individuals had been killed, 16 injured and 101 lacking from three building websites, together with the high-rise.
The 7.7 magnitude quake struck at noon, with an epicenter close to Mandalay, Myanmar ’s second-largest metropolis. Aftershocks adopted, one among them measuring a robust 6.4 magnitude.
In Mandalay, the earthquake reportedly introduced down a number of buildings, together with one of many metropolis’s largest monasteries. Images from the capital metropolis of Naypyidaw confirmed rescue crews pulling victims from the rubble of a number of buildings used to accommodate civil servants.
Myanmar’s authorities mentioned blood was in excessive demand within the hardest-hit areas. In a rustic the place prior governments typically have been gradual to just accept overseas assist, Min Aung Hlaing mentioned Myanmar was prepared to just accept help. The United Nations allotted $5 million to start out aid efforts.
However amid photos of buckled and cracked roads and reviews of a collapsed bridge and a burst dam, there have been considerations about how rescuers would even attain some areas in a rustic already enduring a humanitarian disaster.
“We worry it could be weeks earlier than we perceive the complete extent of destruction attributable to this earthquake,” mentioned Mohammed Riyas, the Worldwide Rescue Committee’s Myanmar director.
Bridge and monastery collapse and dam bursts in Myanmar
Myanmar is in an lively earthquake belt, although lots of the temblors occur in sparsely populated areas, not cities like these affected Friday. The U.S. Geological Survey, a authorities science company, estimated that the demise toll might high 1,000.
Myanmar’s English-language state newspaper, World New Gentle of Myanmar, mentioned 5 cities and cities had seen constructing collapses and two bridges had fallen, together with one on a key freeway between Mandalay. A photograph on the newspaper’s web site confirmed wreckage of an indication that learn “EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT,” which the caption mentioned was a part of the capital’s foremost 1,000-bed hospital.
Elsewhere, video posted on-line confirmed robed monks in a Mandalay avenue, capturing their very own video of the multistory Ma Soe Yane monastery earlier than it abruptly fell into the bottom. It was not instantly clear whether or not anybody was harmed. Video additionally confirmed harm to the previous royal palace.
Christian Support mentioned its companions and colleagues on the bottom reported {that a} dam burst within the metropolis, inflicting water ranges to rise within the lowland areas.
Residents of Yangon, the nation’s largest metropolis, rushed out of their properties when the quake struck. In Naypyitaw, some properties stood partly crumbled, whereas rescuers heaved away bricks from the piles of particles. An injured man reclined on a wheeled stretcher, whereas one other man fanned him within the warmth.
In a rustic the place many individuals already had been struggling, “this catastrophe could have left individuals devastated,” mentioned Julie Mehigan, who oversees Christian Support’s work in Asia, the Center East and Europe.
“Even earlier than this heartbreaking earthquake, we all know battle and displacement has left numerous individuals in actual want,” Mehigan mentioned.
Myanmar’s navy seized energy from the elected authorities of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, and is now concerned in a bloody civil battle with long-established militias and newly shaped pro-democracy ones.
Authorities forces have misplaced management of a lot of Myanmar, and plenty of locations are extremely harmful or just unimaginable for assist teams to achieve. Greater than 3 million individuals have been displaced by the combating and almost 20 million are in want, in line with the United Nations.
Bangkok constructing collapsed in a cloud of mud
In Thailand, a 33-story constructing below building crumpled right into a cloud of mud close to Bangkok’s well-liked Chatuchak market, and onlookers could possibly be seen screaming and operating in a video posted on social media. Autos on a close-by freeway got here to a cease.
Sirens blared throughout the Thai capital’s downtown as a rescuers streamed to the wreckage. Above them, shredded metal and damaged concrete blocks, some stacked like pancakes, rose in a towering heap. Injured individuals had been rushed away on gurneys, and hospital beds had been additionally wheeled outdoors onto a sidewalk.
“It’s an important tragedy,” Deputy Prime Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit mentioned after viewing the positioning, including that there was hope that there have been nonetheless survivors.
The town’s elevated fast transit system and subway shut down.
Whereas the realm is susceptible to earthquakes, they’re normally not so highly effective and infrequently are felt within the Thai capital. The better metropolitan space is house to greater than 17 million individuals, lots of whom dwell in high-rise flats.
Voranoot Thirawat, a lawyer working in central Bangkok, mentioned her first indication that one thing was incorrect got here when she noticed a lightweight swinging forwards and backwards. Then she heard the constructing creaking, and he or she and her colleagues fled down 12 flights of stairs.
“In my lifetime, there was no earthquake like this in Bangkok,” she mentioned.
Fraser Morton, a vacationer from Scotland, was in one among Bangkok’s many malls when the quake struck.
“Rapidly, the entire constructing started to maneuver. Instantly, there was screaming and a variety of panic,” he mentioned. Some individuals fled down upward-moving escalators, he mentioned.
Close by, Paul Vincent, a vacationer visiting from England, recalled seeing a high-rise constructing swaying, water falling from a rooftop pool and other people crying within the streets.
The U.S. Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ heart for geosciences mentioned the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), in line with preliminary reviews. Shallower earthquakes are inclined to trigger extra harm.
Accidents reported in China
To the northeast, the earthquake was felt in China’s Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and prompted harm and accidents within the metropolis of Ruili on the border with Myanmar, in line with Chinese language media reviews.
Movies that one outlet mentioned had been shot by an individual in Ruili confirmed constructing particles littering a avenue and an individual being wheeled in a stretcher towards an ambulance.
The shaking in Mangshi, a Chinese language metropolis about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Ruili, was so robust that folks couldn’t stand, one resident advised The Paper, a web based media outlet.
—Adam Schreck, Haruka Naga, Jerry Harmer, Grant Peck and Penny Wang in Bangkok, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Edith M. Lederer and Farnoush Amiri on the United Nations and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.
