Naypyidaw: A huge earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, killing nearly 150 people, wounding hundreds and dozens of people trapped in collapsed buildings, with the death toll expected to rise.
A light-colored 7.7 afternoon tremor hit the northwest of Sagan in central Myanmar, and a few minutes later the tremor was 6.4 times aftershocks.
The earthquake flattened the buildings, bridges on the back and roads across Myanmar broke, and even demolished a 30-story skyscraper that was hundreds of kilometers (miles) from Bangkok.
Although the full scope of the disaster has not yet emerged, in the civil war, isolated Myanmar leaders have expressed rare requests for international aid.
Junta head Min Aung Hlaing said 144 people were killed and 732 confirmed injured, but warned that tolls “could rise.” So far, three people have been confirmed to die in Thailand.
“In some places, some buildings collapsed,” he said in a television speech after visiting a hospital in the capital Naypyidaw.
“I would like to invite anyone from any country, any organization or Myanmar to help. Thank you.”
He urged massive relief efforts in the wake of the disaster and said he “opened all the ways for foreign aid”.
“Land of Large-scale Casualty”
The four-year civil war triggered by military seizure of power destroyed Myanmar’s infrastructure and health care system, making response to the disaster inadequate.
Myanmar declared a state of emergency in six of the worst affected areas after the earthquake, which the World Health Organization described as a “very very, very big threat to life and health.”
Hundreds of casualties arrived at a large hospital in Naypyidaw, where the entrance to the emergency room collapsed on a car.
A hospital official described it as a “massive area of casualties” where medical staff treat the injured outside.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before. We’re trying to deal with this situation. I’m very tired now,” a doctor told AFP.
As night fell, Australian and New Zealand reporters saw rescuers trying to extract mother and son from the ruins of Naypyidaw collapsed buildings.
A Red Cross worker told AFP that both were seriously injured but rescuers were unable to reach.
Skyscrapers collapse
A 30-story skyscraper is under construction on the border of Thailand, collapsing on a pile of rubble and dust in seconds.
Officials said three workers were confirmed dead, dozens were still unmisunderstood, and many believed to be trapped in rubble.
“I heard someone asking for help and saying ‘help me’,” Bang Sue District Deputy Police Chief Worapat Sukthai told AFP.
“We estimate hundreds of people were injured,” he said.
As night fell, about 100 rescue workers gathered at the scene to find survivors, who were illuminated by specially erected floodlights.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said during a visit to the location that “every building” in Bangkok will need to be inspected to ensure safety, although it is not clear how to proceed.
An emergency zone was announced in Bangkok, with some subway and light rail services suspended.
The capital’s streets are filled with commuters trying to walk home, or simply shelter at the entrances of shopping malls and office buildings.
City authorities said the park will allow people who cannot sleep at home to spend the night.
Strong earthquakes were extremely rare in northern tourist destinations in Thailand, Bangkok and Chiang Mai, where electricity was briefly extinguished, and shocked residents rushed outside, unsure of how to respond.
Sai, 76, started shaking out of the minimum value from Chiang Mai.
“This is the strongest tremor I have ever experienced in my life.”
The earthquake in the region was reported in China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and India.
India, France and the EU have all offered assistance, while the WHO said it is mobilizing its logistics center in Dubai to prepare for trauma injury supplies.
Pope Francis said he was “very saddened by the loss of life and general destruction” in a telegram published in the Vatican.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), earthquakes are relatively common in Myanmar, with six strong earthquakes hitting magnitude 7.0 or higher near the Sagaing fault between 1930 and 1956, which stretches southward along the center of the country to the south.
In 2016, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Bima, an ancient capital in central Myanmar, killed three people, and overturned the spire and collapsed temple walls at tourist destinations.
