NAYPYIDAW: A powerful earthquake hit Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand on Friday, turning a major hospital in the Myanmar capital into a “mass casualty area” and trapping dozens of workers in an under-construction skyscraper in Bangkok.
The quakes wrought widespread damage, particularly in Myanmar, where buildings fell onto their sides, roads cracked open, and the well-known Ava bridge collapsed near the epicentre.
Wounded at the 1,000-bed facility were being treated outside, intravenous drips hanging from their gurneys. Some writhed in pain, others lay still as relatives sought to comfort them.
Another official said hundreds of injured people had arrived at the facility.
The route to the hospital was jammed with vehicles. An ambulance tried to make its way through, a paramedic shouting “cars, move aside so the ambulance can get through.”
Skyscraper collapse
In Bangkok, a 30-storey building under construction collapsed, trapping 43 workers, police and medics said.
An AFP photographer at the site saw ambulances and rescue teams at the site, near the city's sprawling Chatuchak market, a popular destination for tourists and locals alike.
“We estimate that hundreds of people are injured but we are still determining the number of casualties,“ he said.
Sai, 76 was working at a minimart in the northern city when the shop started the shake.
“This is the strongest tremor I’ve experienced in my life.”
The quake prompted Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to declare a state of emergency in Bangkok, where some metro and light rail services were suspended, further snarling the city's already notorious traffic.
Earlier, the prime minister said she had interrupted an official visit to the southern island of Phuket to hold an “urgent meeting” after the quake, according to a post on X.
A livestream broadcast by the state-linked Beijing News showed around a dozen emergency workers in orange jumpsuits and helmets standing behind a cordon on a street strewn with fallen masonry in the city of Ruili, on the Chinese border with Myanmar.
A video posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and geolocated by AFP showed a torrent of water and debris cascading from the roof of a high-rise block in Ruili as people fled through a street market below.
Earthquakes are relatively common in Myanmar, where six strong quakes of 7.0 magnitude or more struck between 1930 and 1956 near the Sagaing Fault, which runs north to south through the centre of the country, according to the USGS.
A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake in the ancient capital Bagan in central Myanmar killed three people in 2016, also toppling spires and crumbling temple walls at the tourist destination.
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