A building under construction in Bangkok, Thailand, collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar.
The devastating earthquake hit Myanmar, triggering a ripple effect across the surrounding region and leaving chaos in its wake.
As many buildings swayed from the tremors, one skyscraper-in-progress came crashing down.
Footage posted online by onlookers shows the huge building straining above the rocky movements on the ground, and as it wasn’t a finished building, it soon collapsed.
While Bangkok police told the Associated Press that officers were responding to the scene, they were unsure how many people were working on the construction site at the time of the collapse.
Although there were no immediate reports of casualties, an update from the BBC suggests that 43 construction workers are missing after the 30-story building came down.
Seven workers managed to escape, while 43 others remain trapped, according to the National Institute for Emergency Medicine in a Facebook post.
Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bang Sue district, told AFP: “When I arrived to inspect the site, I heard people calling for help, saying, ‘Help me.'”
The earthquake struck Bangkok at approximately 1:30pm local time today (March 28), which caused alarms to blare and people to be evacuated onto the streets.
The earthquake caused the building to collapse
Local reports indicate that the Ava Bridge in Myanmar also collapsed as a result of the earthquake. Additionally, a video posted on Twitter showed water from a rooftop pool of a Bangkok tower splashing down the side of the building as it swayed.
An officer from the Myanmar Fire Services Department told Reuters that an active search for casualties is underway in the city.
They stated: “We have started the search and are going around Yangon to assess casualties and damage. So far, we have no information.”
Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention reported that the Myanmar earthquake was felt in nearly every region of the country.
While the full extent of the damage in Myanmar remains unclear due to the ongoing civil war, reports indicate that some homes and religious shrines in the capital, Naypyidaw, were impacted.
According to the US Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ Centre for Geosciences, the 7.7 magnitude earthquake had its epicenter at a depth of 6.2 miles below the surface. Twelve minutes after the initial tremor, a second earthquake struck, registering at 6.4 on the Richter scale.
As for why the skyscraper fell, the BBC reports earthquakes are rare in Thailand, so their buildings are not constructed to withstand them.
