Massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocks Burma, Thailand causing buildings to collapse

A massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake rattled Thailand and Burma on Friday, causing buildings to collapse and leaving dozens of people missing.

Dramatic footage captured in Bangkok showed an apartment building falling down. Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said three people were killed at the site and 90 are now missing. One construction worker was killed when rubble from the site hit his truck and another was crushed by the falling debris, rescue worker Songwut Wangpon told reporters.

The earthquake’s epicenter was in central Burma and aftershocks were reportedly felt in India and China.

One aftershock was reported to have been 6.4 magnitude, according to the United States Geological Survey. People in Bangkok that were evacuated from their buildings were cautioned to stay outside in case there were more.

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Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building after the tremors of a strong earthquake that struck central Burma on Friday affected Bangkok, Thailand. (Reuters/Ann Wang)

Officials in Bangkok declared the city a disaster area to facilitate interagency aid and emergency help. The greater Bangkok area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.

April Kanichawanakul, who works in an office building in Bangkok’s city center, at first didn’t even realize it was an earthquake, the first she’d ever experienced. “I just thought I was dizzy,” she told the Associated Press.

“All of a sudden the whole building began to move. Immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic,” added Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, who was in one of Bangkok’s many malls shopping for camera equipment.

“I just started walking calmly at first but then the building started really moving, yeah, a lot of screaming, a lot of panic, people running the wrong way down the escalators, lots of banging and crashing inside the mall.”

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A worker reacts near a site of a collapsed building in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday. (Reuters/Ann Wang)

The U.S. Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 6.2 miles, with an epicenter in central Burma, according to preliminary reports.

Water from high-rise rooftop pools in Bangkok sloshed over the side as they shook, and debris fell from many buildings.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called an emergency meeting to assess the impact of the quake, which Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention said was felt in almost all regions of the country.

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A Buddhist monk walks near a damaged building at a monastery compound after an earthquake on Friday, March 28, in Naypyitaw, Burma. (AP/Aung Shine Oo)

In Mandalay, Burma’s second-largest city and close to the epicenter, the earthquake damaged part of the former royal palace and buildings, according to videos and photos released on Facebook social media.

In the Sagaing region just southwest of Mandalay, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and some sections of the highway connecting Mandalay and the city of Yangon were also damaged.

In the capital Naypyitaw, the quake damaged religious shrines, sending parts toppling to the ground, and some homes.

“We have started the search and going around Yangon to check for casualties and damage. So far, we have no information yet,” a Burmese fire official told Reuters.