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The 7.7 magnitude earthquake that echoed across Southeast Asia on Friday echoed in Southeast Asia on Friday, killing at least three people in Myanmar and neighboring Thailand, leaving many others trapped under the collapsing skyscrapers in the Thai capital.
The number of casualties is expected to increase in both Myanmar and Thailand.
The earthquake occurred at about 1:30 PM local time (2:30 AM ET) at a depth of six miles near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, according to a US Geological Survey. A few minutes later, aftershocks of 6.4 magnitude continued.
Bangkok’s Thai capital, where many of its 17 million people live in high-rise apartments, has been declared a disaster zone after an earthquake shook the buildings and evacuated thousands of people to their homes and workplaces.
At least three people were killed when the 33-storey building under construction collapsed near the popular Chatuchak market. More than 80 other people remain trapped in the tile rub, Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said.
Video footage of the NBC News crew on the ground of the collapse of a Bangkok building showed local crews among the tile rubs, including some, including rescue dogs, as they assessed damage at the scene.
In Myanmar, the first report on the impact of the earthquake shows significant damage in the country’s centre, an official of the UN Humanitarian Bureau.
A video posted online and verified by NBC News showed construction workers running from a crane top building as they fell on smoke feathers. Other videos have shown that damage to the highway, passengers have evacuated Bangkok’s Skytrain and water is coming out of the rooftop swimming pool.
“All of a sudden the whole building started moving. There was a quick cry and panic,” Fraser Morton, a Scottish tourist at Bangkok Mall, told The Associated Press.
Evacuated people sought shade as authorities urged them to stay outside in anticipation of more aftershocks.
Local media reported that Thai stock exchanges were closed after the trembling, but authorities said in a Facebook post that Bangkok’s major airports are operating normally.
The Myanmar military government, which has been raging for four years in the Civil War, has declared states of emergency in several regions, including Mandalay and the capital Nepitau.
“The state will promptly inquire about the situation, provide humanitarian assistance and implement rescue operations,” Reuters said in a statement.
Reuters reported that at least three people have been killed after the mosque partially collapsed.
In addition to the collapsed 90-year-old bridge in the Sagar area southwest of Mandalay, the section of the highway linking Mandalay to Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, has been damaged, the AP reported. The trembling also hurt religious shrines and several homes in Naypyitaw.
The overall extent of the damage was not immediately clear, but the Myanmar government said blood was in high demand in the most intense hit regions, and videos from the country showed multiple collapsed homes and leaning and cracked roads.
Getting humanitarian relief in Myanmar’s worst hit region “may not be politically easy,” said Iran Kelman, professor of disasters and health at the University of London’s Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction.
He said in 2008, when Cyclone Nargis killed more than 130,000 people in Myanmar, it took the government several days to accept vital aid, stumbling the industry. The military has strictly regulated invasions of the country since it gained power in a coup in 2021.
There were also trembling sensations in Yunnan Province, southwestern China, which is adjacent to Myanmar. According to a video posted on Chinese social media platforms and published on Earth by NBC News, in the town of Ruili’s border, residents were shaken violently, causing residents to flee the high-rise residential buildings.
Burmac Gaia, professor of geophysical and climate risks at London University College, said Friday’s earthquake was probably the largest in mainland Myanmar.
“The combination of size and very shallow depth will maximize the chances of damage,” he said. “In general, build quality is likely not high enough to survive this level of shaking, and it almost certainly will rise significantly as the number of casualties becomes more known about the size of the disaster.”
Nat Sumon and Kyle Eppler reported from Bangkok, from Matthew Mulligan in London and Mithil Aggarwal in Hong Kong.
This story first appeared on nbcnews.com. More from NBC News:
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