‘We need aid’: rescuers in quake-hit Myanmar city plead for help
ByAFP
March 29, 2025
More than 90 people are feared to be trapped in Mandalay's Sky Villa Condominium development - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Joe Stenson and Sebastien Berger
Exhausted, overwhelmed rescuers in Myanmar’s second-biggest city pleaded for help Saturday as they struggled to free hundreds of people trapped in buildings destroyed by a devastating earthquake.
Friday’s shallow 7.7-magnitude quake destroyed dozens of buildings in Mandalay, the country’s cultural capital and home to more than 1.7 million people.
In one street, a monastery’s clock tower lay collapsed on its side, its hands pointing to 12:55 pm — just minutes after the time the quake struck.
Among the worst-hit buildings in the city is the Sky Villa Condominium development, where more than 90 people are feared to be trapped.
The building’s 12 storeys were reduced to six by the quake, the cracked pastel green walls of the upper floors perched on the crushed remains of the lower levels.
A woman’s body stuck out of the wreckage, her arm and hair hanging down.
Rescuers clambered over the ruins painstakingly removing pieces of rubble and wreckage by hand as they sought to open up passageways to those trapped inside.
Scattered around were the remains of people’s lives — a child’s plastic bunny toy, pieces of furniture and a picture of the New York skyline.
Some residents sheltered under the shade of nearby trees, where they had spent the night, a few possessions they had managed to salvage — blankets, motorbike helmets — alongside them.
Elsewhere, rescuers in flip-flops and minimal protective equipment picked by hand over the remains of buildings, shouting into the rubble in the hope of hearing the answering cry of a survivor.
“There are many victims in condo apartments. More than 100 were pulled out last night,” one rescue worker who requested anonymity told AFP.
– Carrying bodies by truck –
Widespread power cuts have hampered rescue efforts, with emergency personnel relying on portable generators for power.
After more than 24 hours of desperate searching, many are exhausted and desperate for relief.
“We have been here since last night. We haven’t got any sleep. More help is needed here,” the rescue worker told AFP.
“We have enough manpower but we don’t have enough cars. We are transporting dead bodies using light trucks. About 10-20 bodies in one light truck.”
Myanmar is accustomed to regular earthquakes, bisected north to south by the active Sagaing Fault, but the violent fury of Friday’s quake was exceptional.
More than 1,000 deaths have been confirmed already, with nearly 2,400 injured, and with the scale of the disaster only beginning to emerge, the toll is likely to rise significantly.
“Yesterday, when the earthquake happened, I was in my home. It was quite scary,” Mandalay resident Ba Chit, 55, told AFP.
“My family members are safe, but other people were affected. I feel so sorry for them. I feel very sad to see this kind of situation.”
Myanmar’s ability to cope with the aftermath of the quake will be hampered by the effects of four years of civil war, which have ravaged the country’s healthcare and emergency systems.
In an indication of the potential enormity of the crisis, the junta has issued an exceptionally rare call for international aid.
Previous military rulers have spurned all foreign assistance even after major natural disasters.
“We need aid. We don’t have enough of anything,” resident Thar Aye, 68, told AFP.
“I feel so sad to see this tragic situation. I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”
Aftershocks rattle Mandalay as rescuers search for survivors in Myanmar quake
By AFP
March 29, 2025
Residents scrambled desperately through collapsed buildings Sunday searching for survivors as aftershocks rattled the devastated city of Mandalay - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Hla-Hla Htay, with Montira Rungjirajittranon in Bangkok
Residents scrambled desperately through collapsed buildings Sunday searching for survivors as aftershocks rattled the devastated city of Mandalay, two days after a massive earthquake killed more than 1,600 people in Myanmar and at least 11 in neighbouring Thailand.
The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with mass destruction seen in the city of more than 1.7 million people.
As dawn broke Sunday, tea shop owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a collapsed restaurant on a main road in his neighbourhood, tossing bricks aside one by one.
“About seven people died here” when the quake struck Friday, he told AFP. “I’m looking for more bodies but I know there cannot be any survivors.
“We don’t know how many bodies there could be but we are looking.”
About an hour later, a small aftershock struck, sending people scurrying out of a hotel for safety, following a similar tremor felt late Saturday evening.
Truckloads of firemen gathered at one of Mandalay’s main fire stations to be dispatched to sites around the city.
The night before, rescuers had pulled a woman out alive from the wreckage of a collapsed apartment building, with applause ringing out as she was carried by stretcher to an ambulance.
Myanmar’s ruling junta said in a statement Saturday that at least 1,644 people were killed and more than 3,400 injured in the country, with at least 139 more missing.
But with unreliable communications, the true scale of the disaster remains unclear in the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid on Friday, indicating the severity of the calamity.
Previous military governments have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.
Myanmar has already been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.
Anti-junta fighters in the country have declared a two-week partial ceasefire in quake-affected regions starting Sunday, the shadow “National Unity Government” said in a statement.
The government in exile said it would “collaborate with the UN and NGOs to ensure security, transportation, and the establishment of temporary rescue and medical camps” in areas that it controls, according to the statement, which was released on social media.
Aid agencies have warned that Myanmar is unprepared to deal with a disaster of this magnitude.
Some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger, even before the quake struck.
– Bangkok building collapse –
Across the border in Thailand, rescuers in Bangkok worked Sunday to pluck out survivors trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed after the Friday earthquake.
At least 11 people have been killed in the Thai capital, with dozens more still trapped under the immense pile of debris where the skyscraper once stood.
Bangkok authorities were expected to release another statement at 9 am (0200 GMT), with fears of a further toll increase.
Workers at the site used large mechanical diggers in an attempt to find victims still trapped on Sunday morning.
Sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones have also been deployed to seek signs of life in the collapsed building, close to the Chatuchak weekend market popular among tourists.
Authorities said they would be deploying engineers to assess and repair 165 damaged buildings in the city on Sunday.
burs-pfc/dhc
Scientists explain why Myanmar quake was so deadly
By AFP
March 29, 2025
Experts say Friday's devastating earthquake in Myanmar was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modelling suggesting thousands could be dead.
Automatic assessments from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses.
“High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people.
Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had passed 1,000, with more than 2,000 injured.
However, the USGS analysis said there was a 35 percent chance that possible fatalities could be in the range of 10,000-100,000 people.
The USGS offered a similar likelihood that the financial damage could total tens of thousands of millions of dollars, warning that it might exceed the GDP of Myanmar.
Weak infrastructure will complicate relief efforts in the isolated, military-ruled state, where rescue services and the healthcare system have already been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.
– Dangerous fault –
Bill McGuire, emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London (UCL), said it was “probably the biggest earthquake on the Myanmar mainland in three-quarters of a century”.
A 6.7-magnitude aftershock struck minutes after the first and McGuire warned that “more can be expected”.
Rebecca Bell, a tectonics expert at Imperial College London (ICL), suggested it was a side-to-side “strike-slip” of the Sagaing Fault.
This is where the Indian tectonic plate, to the west, meets the Sunda plate that forms much of Southeast Asia — a fault similar in scale and movement to the San Andreas Fault in California.
“The Sagaing fault is very long, 1,200 kilometres (745 miles), and very straight,” Bell said. “The straight nature means earthquakes can rupture over large areas — and the larger the area of the fault that slips, the larger the earthquake.”
Earthquakes in such cases can be “particularly destructive”, Bell added, explaining that since the quake takes place at a shallow depth, its seismic energy has dissipated little by the time it reaches populated areas above.
That causes “a lot of shaking at the surface”, Bell said.
– Building boom –
Myanmar has been hit by powerful quakes in the past.
There have been more than 14 earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or above in the past century, including a magnitude 6.8 earthquake near Mandalay in 1956, said Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey.
Ian Watkinson, from the department of earth sciences at Royal Holloway University of London, said what had changed in recent decades was the “boom in high-rise buildings constructed from reinforced concrete”.
Myanmar has been riven by years of conflict and there is a low level of building design enforcement.
“Critically, during all previous magnitude 7 or larger earthquakes along the Sagaing Fault, Myanmar was relatively undeveloped, with mostly low-rise timber-framed buildings and brick-built religious monuments,” Watkinson said.
“Today’s earthquake is the first test of modern Myanmar’s infrastructure against a large, shallow-focus earthquake close to its major cities.”
Baptie said that at least 2.8 million people in Myanmar were in hard-hit areas where most lived in buildings “constructed from timber and unreinforced brick masonry” that are vulnerable to earthquake shaking.
“The usual mantra is that ‘earthquakes don’t kill people; collapsing infrastructure does’,” said Ilan Kelman, an expert in disaster reduction at UCL.
“Governments are responsible for planning regulations and building codes. This disaster exposes what governments of Burma/Myanmar failed to do long before the earthquake, which would have saved lives during the shaking.”
– Skyscraper checks –
Strong tremors also rocked neighbouring Thailand, where a 30-storey skyscraper under construction was reduced to a pile of dusty concrete, trapping workers in the debris.
Christian Malaga-Chuquitaype, from ICL’s civil and environmental engineering department, said the nature of the ground in Bangkok contributed to the impact on the city, despite being some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the epicentre in Myanmar.
“Even though Bangkok is far from active faults, its soft soil amplifies the shaking,” he said. “This affects especially tall buildings during distant earthquakes.”
Malaga-Chuquitaype said the construction techniques in Bangkok favouring “flat slabs” — where floors are held only by columns without using strengthening beams, like a table supported only by legs — were a “problematic design”.
He said that initial video analysis of the collapsed tower block in Bangkok suggested this type of construction technique had been used.
“It performs poorly during earthquakes, often failing in a brittle and sudden (almost explosive) manner,” he said.
Roberto Gentile, a catastrophe risk modelling expert from UCL, said the “dramatic collapse” of the Bangkok tower block meant that “other tall buildings in the city may require a thorough assessment”.
Bangkok city authorities said they will deploy more than 100 engineers to inspect buildings for safety after receiving more than 2,000 reports of damage.
Myanmar quake: what we know
By AFP
March 28, 2025
Powerful quake hits Myanmar - Copyright AFP Valentina BRESCHI, Cléa PÉCULIER
Sara HUSSEIN
A powerful earthquake centred in Myanmar has killed more than 150 people in the war-torn country and neighbouring Thailand and caused widespread damage.
Here is what we know:
– Powerful, and shallow –
The 7.7-magnitude quake hit northwest of Myanmar’s Sagaing at 12:50 pm (0650 GMT) on Friday at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles).
It was followed minutes later by a powerful 6.7-magnitude aftershock and a dozen smaller tremors.
The quake was felt across the region, with shaking reported from India to the west and China to the east, as well as Cambodia and Laos.
The quake hit along the Sagaing Fault that runs from the coast to Myanmar’s northern border, according to earthquake scientists Judith Hubbard and Kyle Bradley.
It “has long been considered one of the most dangerous strike-slip faults on Earth” because of its proximity to major cities Yangon and Mandalay, as well as capital Naypyidaw, they wrote in an analysis.
The fault is comparatively simple and straight, which geologists believe can lead to especially large quakes, they added.
– Over 150 killed –
At least 144 people have been confirmed dead in the quake in Myanmar, according to the country’s junta chief.
However, Min Aung Hlaing warned the toll was likely to rise given the widespread destruction across the country.
Myanmar’s four years of civil war, sparked by the military seizing power, have also weakened the country’s emergency and health services, leaving them ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster.
In Thailand, 10 people were killed in Bangkok, most in the collapse of an under-construction skyscraper.
But up to 100 more construction workers were believed trapped in the rubble of the building, near the sprawling Chatuchak market.
Rescue operations continued throughout the night, though it was proving complicated to pick through the unstable rubble.
– Widespread damage –
The quake caused extensive damage in Myanmar.
There was massive destruction in Mandalay, where multiple buildings collapsed into piles of rubble and twisted metal coated in dust, dotted with people attempting rescues.
The Ava bridge running across the Irawaddy river from Sagaing, built nearly 100 years ago, collapsed into the swirling waters below.
There were reports of damage to Mandalay airport, potentially complicating relief efforts, as well as to the city’s university and palace, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
In Naypyidaw, AFP reporters saw buildings toppled and roads ruptured.
At a hospital in the capital, patients were being treated outdoors after the quake damaged the building, bringing down the emergency department’s entrance.
Electricity outages were reported in several places, with power limited to four hours in Yangon due to quake damage.
Communications across affected areas were also patchy, with phone networks largely down.
In Bangkok, a crane collapsed at a second building site and the city shut down metro and light rail services overnight to inspect for damage.
Several hundred people slept in parks overnight, city authorities said, either unable to get home or worried about the structural integrity of their buildings.
The quake prompted thousands of people to flee shaking buildings in Thailand, where quakes are rare.
Even hospitals were evacuated, with one woman delivering a baby in the street in Bangkok, and a surgeon continuing to operate on a patient after being forced to leave the theatre mid-operation.
– Aid pleas, offers –
The scale of the devastation prompted Myanmar’s isolated military regime to make a rare plea for international assistance.
Myanmar’s junta chief invited “any country, any organisation” to help with relief and said he he “opened all ways for foreign aid”.
Offers of assistance flooded in, with neighbour India among the first to say it was ready to help.
The European Union offered support, and US President Donald Trump said Washington had “already spoken” with Myanmar about aid.
“It’s a real bad one, and we will be helping,” he told reporters.
The World Health Organization said it was preparing to surge support in response to “a very, very big threat to life and health.”
burs-sah/pdw/fox
Rescuers dig for survivors after huge quake hits Myanmar, Thailand
ByAFP
March 28, 2025
Rescue workers walk past debris at a construction site after a building collapsed in Bangkok following the earthquake - Copyright AFP Lillian SUWANRUMPHA
Hla-Hla Htay with Montira Rungjirajittranon in Bangkok
Rescuers dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings on Saturday in a desperate search for survivors after a huge earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand, killing more than 150 people.
The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake struck northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar in the early afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
The quake destroyed buildings, downed bridges, and buckled roads across swathes of Myanmar, with severe damage reported in the second biggest city, Mandalay.
At least 144 people were killed and over 700 injured in Myanmar, according to junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, but with communications disrupted, the true scale of the disaster has yet to emerge from the isolated military-ruled state.
It was the biggest quake to hit Myanmar in over a century, according to US geologists, and the tremors were powerful enough to severely damage buildings across Bangkok, hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from the epicentre.
Rescuers in the Thai capital worked through the night searching for workers trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed, reduced in seconds to a pile of rubble and twisted metal by the force of the shaking.
Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt told AFP that around 10 people had been confirmed killed across the city, most in the skyscraper collapse.
But up to 100 workers were still unaccounted for at the building, close to the Chatuchak weekend market that is a magnet for tourists.
“We are doing our best with the resources we have because every life matters,” Chadchart told reporters at the scene.
“Our priority is acting as quickly as possible to save them all.”
Bangkok city authorities said they will deploy more than 100 engineers to inspect buildings for safety after receiving over 2,000 reports of damage.
Up to 400 people were forced to spend the night in the open air in city parks as their homes were not safe to return to, Chadchart said.
Significant quakes are extremely rare in Bangkok, and Friday’s tremors sent shoppers and workers rushing into the street in alarm across the city.
While there was no widespread destruction, the shaking brought some dramatic images of rooftop swimming pools sloshing their contents down the side of many of the city’s towering apartment blocks and hotels.
Even hospitals were evacuated, with one woman delivering her baby outdoors after being moved from a hospital building. A surgeon also continued to operate on a patient after evacuating, completing the operation outside, a spokesman told AFP.
– Rare junta plea for help –
But the worst of the damage was in Myanmar, where four years of civil war sparked by a military coup have ravaged the healthcare and emergency response systems.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid, indicating the severity of the calamity. Previous military regimes have shunned foreign assistance even after major natural disasters.
The country declared a state of emergency across the six worst-affected regions after the quake, and at one major hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw, medics were forced to treat the wounded in the open air.
One official described it as a “mass casualty area”.
“I haven’t seen (something) like this before. We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted now,” a doctor told AFP.
Mandalay, a city of more than 1.7 million people, appeared to have been badly hit. AFP photos showed dozens of buildings reduced to rubble.
A resident reached by phone told AFP that a hospital and a hotel had been destroyed, and said the city was badly lacking in rescue personnel.
A huge queue of buses and lorries lined up at a checkpoint to enter the capital early on Saturday.
Offers of foreign assistance began coming in, with President Donald Trump on Friday pledging US help.
“It’s terrible,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about the quake when asked if he would respond to the appeal by Myanmar’s military rulers.
“It’s a real bad one, and we will be helping. We’ve already spoken with the country.”
India, France and the European Union offered to provide assistance, while the WHO said it was mobilising to prepare trauma injury supplies.
burs-pdw/sah/fox
‘Everyone was screaming’: quake shocks Thailand tourists
By AFP
March 29, 2025
For many tourists who flock to Thailand, the quake was a disconcerting experience - Copyright AFP MANAN VATSYAYANA
Sally Jensen and Montira Rungjirajittranon
French tourist Augustin Gus was shopping for a t-shirt in one of Bangkok’s many malls when a massive quake began shaking the building in the Thai capital.
“Just when I left the elevator, the earth starts moving. I thought it was me… it was not me,” the 23-year-old told AFP.
“Everyone was screaming and running, so I started screaming as well.”
The powerful 7.7-magnitude quake struck Friday afternoon in neighbouring Myanmar, where over 1,000 people have been killed and several cities face large-scale destruction.
The damage and toll was far smaller in Bangkok, with 10 people confirmed dead so far, most in the collapse of an under-construction skyscraper.
For many tourists who flocked to the popular destination, the quake was a disconcerting experience.
Some were lazing in rooftop pools when the powerful shaking began to slop the water off the edge of high-rise buildings.
Others were left stranded in the streets with their luggage when the city’s metro and light-rail system shut down for safety checks after the quake.
The city’s residents, unused to earthquakes, were not able to offer much guidance, said one business traveller from the Solomon Islands, who asked not to be named.
“Unfortunately there were no procedures in place” during his evacuation from the 21st floor of a Bangkok skyscraper on Friday.
“So everyone was getting confused,” he said. “I just wanted to get out.”
Cristina Mangion, 31, from Malta, was in her hotel bed when the shaking began.
“I thought I was feeling dizzy from the heat,” she told AFP.
Hotel staff came to knock at the doors of each room to offer help, and Mangion’s father quickly messaged to check she was okay.
– Soldiering on –
Despite the experience Mangion and Gus were among the tourists out on Saturday at the sprawling Chatuchak market.
The popular tourist draw is not far from the scene of the deadly building collapse, and market security guard Yim Songtakob said crowds were thinner than usual.
“That’s normal… people are scared,” said the 55-year-old, who has worked at the market for a decade.
Still, Mangion said she would not be deterred by the tremors.
“I feel bad for what happened,” she said.
“I think the best thing is to actually come here and still continue as if nothing happened.
“This weekend will probably be harder than usual for business,” she added.
Gus also said he was not worried about enjoying the rest of his three-week trip.
“I’ll still have great memories, it’s just an experience and that’s why I’m travelling,” he said.
Frenchman Gilles Franke, a regular visitor to Thailand who hopes to one day retire in the country, was equally sanguine about the risk of aftershocks.
“When it’s your time, it’s your time,” the 59-year-old told AFP.
“You can die when you cross the road, you can die at any time in your life.”
Deadly earthquake forces Thai patients into sports hall
By AFP
March 29, 2025
Patients were taken to the canteen of a hospital in Bangkok after fears that strong tremors had damaged the main building - Copyright AFP Montira RUNGJIRAJITTRANON
Beneath basketball hoops and beside football goals, hospital beds line a sports hall — patients evacuated from a hospital in the Thai capital for fear of damage by a devastating earthquake.
The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake struck central Myanmar on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock — with powerful tremors shaking Bangkok, more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) to the south.
When the earthquake struck, patients at Rajavithi Hospital were rushed out of the building, some helped down stairs to nearby makeshift shelters, including to the hospital’s canteen and sports hall.
The worst impact was in Myanmar, where the junta said at least 1,002 people were killed and nearly 2,400 injured.
Around 10 more deaths have been confirmed in Bangkok, where the Friday lunchtime tremors shook buildings and created panic on the streets.
The construction site of a new 30-storey government building quickly turned into a disaster scene, with people jumping into cars to escape or shrieking as they fled on foot.
Dramatic video footage showed the tremor rocking a high-rise hotel, with water from its rooftop pool whipping over the building’s edge.
– Fear –
At the hospital, staff rushed to take the patients outside.
One patient, being treated for leukaemia, told AFP that she was moved from her private room to a hall in Rajavithi Hospital, walking down multiple flights of stairs aided by nurses.
“I need to receive my blood platelets soon, and the hospital is currently checking which other hospital can provide the treatment,” she said, asking not to be named.
Some were later moved back inside, while others were transferred to different hospitals this morning, a hospital staff member said.
On Saturday, around 30 patients were in the hall, where hospital staff provided basic medical care including blood transfusions.
Many Bangkok residents were terrified, remaining fearful about aftershocks.
Some chose to sleep outside under trees in open spaces in Bangkok, or popped up tents in the park for the night.
Others came out to help.
Panadda Wongphudee, an actor and a former Miss Thailand who often takes part in volunteer activities, handed out refreshments to rescue workers.
‘Blink of an eye’: survivor tells of Bangkok skyscraper collapse horror
By AFP
March 28, 2025
Friends and relatives wait for news about possible survivors at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP CARL COURT
Lapyae KO
A construction worker told Saturday how he cheated death when a Bangkok skyscraper collapsed “in the blink of an eye” after a massive earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand.
Tearful family members gathered at the remains of the 30-storey building, which crumbled to rubble in just seconds on Friday, clinging to shreds of hope that their loved ones who were working when it fell might be found alive.
The tower was being built to house government offices when the quake struck, and construction worker Khin Aung told AFP how the building collapsed just after his brother had entered to start his shift.
“When my shift ended around 1:00 pm I went outside to get water and I saw my younger brother before I went out,” he told AFP.
Tremors from the 7.7-magnitude quake centred in neighbouring Myanmar — where the ruling junta said at least 694 people had died — hit Bangkok around 1:20 pm (0620 GMT), shaking the building.
“When I went outside, I saw dust everywhere and I just ran to escape from the collapsing building,” Khin Aung said.
“I video-called my brother and friends but only one picked up the phone. But I can’t see his face and I heard he was running.
“At that point the whole building was shaking but while I was on a call with him, I lost the call and the building collapsed.”
Authorities say up to 100 workers may be trapped in the mass of rubble and twisted metal that is all that remains of the tower. At least five are confirmed dead but the toll is almost certain to rise.
“I can’t describe how I feel — it happened in the blink of an eye,” said Khin Aung.
“All my friends and my brother were in the building when it collapsed. I don’t have any words to say.”
– Desperate relatives –
Bangkok’s skyline is ever-changing, with buildings constantly torn down and shiny new skyscrapers thrown up.
The ceaseless reinvention is powered by an army of labourers, a huge proportion of whom are drawn from Myanmar by the prospect of regular work, a peaceful country and better wages than at home.
Many relatives of workers from Myanmar gathered at the site on Saturday hoping for news of the missing.
Khin Aung and his brother — married with two children — have been working in Bangkok for six months.
“I heard they sent 20 workers to hospital but I don’t know who are they and my friends and brother are among them,” he said.
“I hope my brother and friends are in hospital. If they are at the hospital, I have hope. If they are under this building, there is no hope for them to survive.”
Thai woman Chanpen Kaewnoi, 39, waited anxiously for news of her mother and sister, who were in the building when it went down.
“My colleague called and said she couldn’t find my mum or my sister. I thought mum might have slipped and maybe my sister stayed to help her,” she told AFP.
“I want to see them, I hope I can find them. I hope they will not be lost. I still have hope, 50 percent.”
As distraught families waited for news, rescue workers pressed on with the delicate task of searching the ruins without triggering further collapses.
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