A state of emergency was imposed after hundreds of workers were trapped in a collapsed under-construction building in Bangkok on Friday due to a strong earthquake that shook Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.
According to the US Geological Survey, the 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Friday afternoon at a shallow depth northwest of the city of Sagaing. Minutes later, an aftershock with a magnitude of 6.4 struck the same region. 43 people were trapped after a 30-story building under construction collapsed in the Thai capital, according to police and medical officials .Social media footage revealed that in a matter of seconds, the enormous structure meant for government offices was reduced to a tangle of debris and twisted metal.
Worapat Sukthai, the deputy police commander of Bang Sue district, told AFP, “I heard people calling for help, saying help me, when I arrived to inspect the site.” We estimate that hundreds of people are injured but we are still determining the number of casualties,” he stated.
When the earthquake occurred, an AFP team was at the National Museum in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on the other side of the border. The building started to tremble, and pieces dropped from the ceiling. Outside, uniformed employees rushed, some sobbing and shaking, others reaching for cell phones in an attempt to reach loved ones.
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