Monday 31 / March / 2025
More than a dozen people were killed in Myanmar after a massive earthquake of 7.7 magnitude struck the Southeast Asian country on Friday.
At least 144 people in Myanmar have been killed and 732 injured, the country's junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, said, inviting "any country, any organisation" to help with relief.
Strong tremors were felt as far as Bangkok, Thailand, where a high-rise building under construction collapsed to the ground.
At least three people died in the collapse, and dozens are still feared trapped in the rubble.
What do we know so far?
Germany's GFZ center for geosciences said the epicenter of the earthquake was in neighboring Myanmar, citing preliminary reports. It was recorded at a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake had a 7.7 magnitude, with a 6.4 magnitude aftershock following closely behind.
The full extent of death, injury and destruction was not immediately in Myanmar but the governing junta said blood was in high demand in the hardest-hit areas.
A predictive analysis by the United States government estimated the quake could result in thousands of deaths and significant economic losses, particularly affecting the Sagaing and Meiktila regions.
The Thai prime minister rdeclared a state of emergency in Bangkok, while Myanmar declared an emergency in the capital and its second-largest city.
What else do we know about the earthquake?
Witnesses said people ran out into the streets of Bangkok after feeling the powerful tremors.
A highrise building under construction collapsed in Bangkok due to the earthquake, police told the Associated Press news agency. The French AFP news agency cited Thai deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai as saying 81 people were trapped.
Thai authorities said three deaths were confirmed in Bangkok.
The 30-story skyscraper was to serve as a government office building in the north of the Thai capital, AFP added.
"When I arrived to inspect the site, I heard people calling for help, saying help me," Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bang Sue district, told AFP. "We estimate that hundreds of people are injured but we are still determining the number of casualties," he said.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that the tremor caused damage to many high-rise buildings in the Thai capital, with inspections underway to find out the number of buildings affected. The governor urged caution.
Sittipunt was later cited by Reuters as saying that authorities had received at least 169 calls about damage to buildings in the capital.
City Hall declared Bangkok a disaster area to facilitate emergency aid.
What is the situation in Myanmar?
The earthquake's epicenter was located 16 kilometers northwest of the city of Sagaing in Myanmar at around 12:50 p.m. local time (0620 GMT/UTC), the USGS said.
An AFP journalist in the city of Naypyidaw, south of Sagaing, said roads were buckled by the force of the earthquake, with chunks of ceilings fallen from buildings.
"We have started the search and going around Yangon to check for casualties and damage. So far, we have no information yet," an officer from the Myanmar Fire Services Department told Reuters. Yangon lies some 620 kilometers south of Sagaing.
Unverified social media posts also showed damage in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city and ancient royal capital that is at the center of its Buddhist heartland.
"We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking," a witness in the city 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."
The Red Cross said that the earthquake damaged infrastructure including roads, bridges and public buildings.
A 90-year-old bridge collapsed in Sagaing, as well as sections of a highway connecting Mandalay to Yagnon, Myanmar's largest city, according to media reports.
"We currently have concerns for large scale dams that people are watching to see the conditions
of them", Marie Manrique, Program Coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross said to reporters in Geneva, via video link from Yangon. "We anticipate the impact to be quite large."
Manrique also expressed concern regarding large-scale dams in the country.
A mosque also partially collapsed in Myanmar, with deaths reported, though a clear toll was still unavailable.
Under military rule since the 2021 ouster of the elected civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar was already in turmoil before the earthquake struck.
What were Bangkok's streets like during the earthquake?
DW reporter Tommy Walker described the moment the earthquake struck.
"I had just returned from an overnight trip from Laos, I was in my bed and my room was swaying. There is some construction in my apartment so I opened my door and saw people panicking. One of the cleaners told me to evacuate immediately, so I grabbed some clothes and my shoes and ran down over 20 floors of stairs. The ceilings were creaking."
Downstairs, Walker reported seeing "hundreds if not thousands" rushing to evacuate, with hotel guests canceling their bookings and fleeing. "People were sobbing, calling home and panicking."
"A Thai woman who has lived in Bangkok all of her life said she has never experienced this before," Walker said.
Some metro and light rail lines were suspended as a result of the quake.
"I heard it and I was sleeping in the house, I ran as far as I could in my pyjamas out of the building," Duangjai, a resident of popular tourist city Chiang Mai, told AFP after tremors were felt across northern and central Thailand.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said she interrupted an official visit to the southern island of Phuket to hold an "urgent meeting."
Thailand's stock exchange announced coming to a full halt after the quake.
Where else were the tremors felt?
Apart from Thailand, the tremors were also felt in China's southwest Yunnan province. Beijing's quake agency measured the jolt at 7.9 in magnitude.
China's Foreign Ministry said it was closely following reports on the tremors.
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his country was on standby to offer help to Myanmar and Thailand.
