Strong earthquake rocks Thai capital of Bangkok

A highrise building under construction in Bangkok collapsed after a 77 magnitude earthquake rocked Thailand and neighbouring Myanmar midday on Friday police said and possible casualties are not yet knownA dramatic video circulated on social media showed the multistory building with a crane on top collapsing into a cloud of dust while onlookers screamed and ranPolice told The Associated Press they were responding to the scene near Bangkoks popular Chatuchak Market and had no immediate information on how many workers were on the site at the time of the collapseThe midday temblor was followed by a strong 64 magnitude aftershock and people in Bangkok evacuated from their buildings were cautioned to stay outside in case there were moreAll of a sudden the whole building began to move immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic said Fraser Morton a tourist from Scotland who was in one of Bangkoks many malls shopping for camera equipmentI 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 mallLike thousands of others in downtown Bangkok Morton sought refuge in Benjasiri Park away from the tall buildings all around I got outside and then looked up at the building and the whole building was moving dust and debris it was pretty intense he said Lots of chaosThe US Geological Survey and Germanys GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers 62 miles with an epicenter in Myanmar according to preliminary reportsIn Mandalay the countrys secondlargest 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 mediaWhile the area is prone to earthquakes it is generally sparsely populated and most houses are lowrise structuresIn the Sagaing region just southwest of Mandalay a 90yearold bridge collapsed and some sections of the highway connecting Mandalay and Myanmars largest city Yangon were also damagedResidents in Yangon rushed out of their homes when the quake struck There were no immediate reports of injuries or deathsIn the capital Naypyitaw the quake damaged religious shrines sending parts toppling to the ground and some homesIn Bangkok alarms went off in buildings as the earthquake hit around 130 pm and startled residents were evacuated down staircases of highrise condominiums and hotelsThe greater Bangkok area is home to more than 17 million people many of whom live in highrise apartmentsWater from highrise rooftop pools sloshed over the side as they shook and debris fell from many buildings as the longlasting earthquake rattled the cityI have experienced earthquakes twice before in Myanmar but that was only one second one big bang but here it went on for at least Id say a minute said Zsuzsanna VariKovacs a Hungarian resident of Bangkok who had just finished eating at a restaurant when the quake hitMy husband was in a highrise I think thats even worse Thailands Department of Disaster Prevention said the quake was felt in almost all regions of the countryPrime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called an emergency meeting to assess the impact of the quake