Bangkok, Mar. 28, (dpa/GNA) – At least 144 people have been killed and more than 700 are injured in Myanmar after powerful earthquakes struck South-East Asia on Friday, the country’s military leadership said on state television.
Tremors from the quakes were also felt in several neighbouring countries, including Thailand, where images shared online showed workers fleeing as a high-rise building under construction collapsed.
Thai officials reported three deaths and 68 injuries, while media reports said dozens of workers remained missing hours after the quakes.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit at around 12:50 pm (0620 GMT). Readings from other services have varied.
USGS said the epicentre was about 16 kilometres from the city of Sagaing in north-western Myanmar. A few minutes later, the USGS registered another earthquake a little to the south with a magnitude of 6.4.
Myanmar junta declares state of emergency
In Myanmar, media reports citing rescue workers and witnesses said that buildings have collapsed, trapping people beneath the rubble.
A rescue worker told dpa that hospitals in Mandalay, a city near the epicentre, were overwhelmed by the number of injured.
He reported scenes of chaos and that there were too few volunteers to help free the number of people trapped beneath the debris.
Getting information from the situation in Myanmar has been difficult as the country has been in political turmoil since a military junta seized power in a 2021 coup.
Millions of people have been displaced by the ongoing fighting.
Military junta leader Min Aung Hlaing announced on television that he had requested assistance from the international community and various organizations.
He added that India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been authorized to support volunteer efforts in the affected regions.
The military junta has also declared a state of emergency in several parts of Myanmar. A spokesman for the junta said hospitals are in urgent need of blood supplies.
Red Cross reports devastating damage
The Red Cross in Myanmar has reported devastating damage and has spoken to staff in the affected region, according to Marie Manrique, the organization’s programme manager on the ground.
There is great concern that dams on the Irrawaddy River may have been damaged and could break. Manrique said that 18.5 million people live in the affected area near the city of Sagaing.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 1.6 million of the 3.5 million people displaced in Myanmar live in the region hit by the earthquake.
“We are very concerned about the possible humanitarian consequences,” said Manrique. “We expect a lot of people to be injured.”
Tremors felt in Thailand and neighbouring regions
The quake also rattled Thailand’s capital Bangkok, where the earth shook for several minutes and people left their homes in panic, according to a dpa reporter. Sirens could be heard hours after the quake struck.
In the Silom district in the centre of the capital, thousands of people were on the streets, many running.
Volunteers were immediately deployed, instructing people to get out into the open and leave the buildings. Patients were brought out of the hospitals onto the streets.
The shell of a high-rise building in Bangkok collapsed, as shown in videos circulating online.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra convened an emergency meeting during her visit to Phuket Island.
Earthquake felt in Vietnam, India, China, Bangladesh
The tremors were also felt in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, as well as in parts of India, China and Bangladesh.
In China, tremors were reported in Yunnan province, where damage and injuries were confirmed.
In India’s Manipur state and Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, the quake caused panic, but no damage was initially reported.
India has offered to help earthquake victims in Myanmar and Thailand.
“India stands ready to offer all possible assistance,” Modi wrote on X. He said he has asked “our authorities to be on standby.”
Asia is regularly affected by earthquakes, which sometimes kill thousands of people and cause devastating destruction.
An earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan in March 2011 claimed almost 16,000 lives and caused the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
More recently, Afghanistan, Indonesia and Nepal have experienced disasters with thousands of deaths.
EU offers satellite help
Commenting on X, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the scenes from Myanmar and Thailand are “heartbreaking.”
The European Union’s Copernicus satellites “are already helping first responders,” she wrote and added that the EU is “ready to provide more support.”
Copernicus is the EU’s space observation programme. It has an open source policy in line with international data sharing principles, its website states, and can provide detailed maps of affected areas.
GNA
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