Myanmar hit by 7.7-magnitude earthquake with tremors reaching as far as Thailand – live updates

Key events

Here are some more images coming in via the newswires:

Rescue teams are seen at a construction site where a building collapsed in Bangkok after an earthquake. Photograph: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images

People look at a damaged bridge on the Naypyidaw-Yangon highway in Myanmar. Photograph: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

People seek shelter in Bangkok’s Benjasiri park after an earthquake shook nearby high-rises on Friday. Photograph: Adam Schreck/AP

Damaged pagodas are seen after earthquake on Friday, in Naypyidaw, Myanmar. Photograph: Aung Shine Oo/AP

A high-rise building under construction in Bangkok collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Thailand and neighboring Myanmar midday on Friday, police said, and possible casualties are not yet known.

According to the Associated Press (AP), a dramatic video has been circulating on social media showing the multistory building with a crane on top collapsing into a cloud of dust.

Police told the AP they were responding to the scene near Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market, and had no immediate information on how many workers were on the site at the time of the collapse.

‘A five-storey building collapsed in front of my eyes’

One witness in Mandalay told Reuters:

We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking.

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.”

Witnesses contacted by Reuters in Yangon said many people ran out from buildings in the city, the largest in Myanmar.

An officer from the Myanmar fire services department told Reuters:

We have started the search and going around Yangon to check for casualties and damage. So far, we have no information yet.”

Reuters reports that social media posts from Mandalay, Myanmar’s ancient royal capital that is at the centre of its Buddhist heartland, showed collapsed buildings and debris strewn across streets of the city. However, Reuters could not immediately verify the posts.

In Thailand, there were no immediate reports of casualties and Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called an emergency meeting to assess the impact of the quake.

Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention said the quake was felt in almost all regions of the country.

The greater Bangkok area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.

As we mentioned earlier, the epicenter of the earthquake was in central Myanmar, about 30 miles (50km) east of the city of Monywa.

The AP says that in the capital Naypyidaw, the quake damaged religious shrines, sending parts toppling to the ground, and some homes.

Further reports of damage were not immediately available from Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war.

Here are some of the latest images from Thailand:

Women and a child in Bangkok. Photograph: Ann Wang/Reuters

A collapsed building in Bangkok. Photograph: Ann Wang/Reuters

Construction workers in Bangkok. Photograph: Ann Wang/Reuters

Strong, shallow earthquake strikes Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand

An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 has struck Myanmar, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, causing hundreds of people to pour out of swaying buildings in Bangkok, the capital of neighbouring Thailand 1,400km away.

USGS said the quake on Friday was shallow, at a depth of just 10km (six miles) with the epicentre near the central city of Mandalay, about 50km (30 miles) east of the city of Monywa.

There were no immediate reports of damage from the earthquake in Myanmar, which is in a state of chaos after a coup in 2021.

Startled residents in densely populated central Bangkok poured out of high-rise condominiums and hotels. The greater Bangkok area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.

The quake was forceful enough to send water sloshing out of pools, some high up in high-rises, as the tremor shook.

“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, northern Thailand, told AFP.

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Myanmar hit by 7.7-magnitude earthquake with tremors reaching as far as Thailand – live updates | Myanmar

Myanmar hit by 7.7-magnitude earthquake with tremors reaching as far as Thailand – live updates | Myanmar

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