A strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake with its epicenter in Myanmar shook several countries in Southeast Asia on Friday. From Naypyidaw, the Burmese capital, local media and agencies have reported on buildings and bridges collapsed, as well as large cracks in the roads.
One of the largest hospitals in the city has collapsed, and doctors are treating the injured on the street. Authorities have not officially reported any deaths yet, although in other cities like Taungnoo, south of the capital, several witnesses report multiple deaths after the collapse of a mosque.
Social media posts from Mandalay, the country's second-largest city, showed collapsed buildings and debris scattered in the streets. Some videos recorded at the airport in this city showed chaotic scenes of passengers evacuating the terminal while loud earthquake alarms sounded.
The earthquake also rattled neighboring Thailand. In Bangkok, many residents rushed out of buildings when the tremors began at noon. Several videos quickly went viral on social media showing water from skyscraper pools splashing from the rooftops.
Initial reports indicated that 43 workers were trapped under the rubble of a 30-story skyscraper under construction near the popular Chatuchak market, one of the busiest tourist spots on weekends in the Thai capital.
Later, local authorities specified that the workers had been rescued, and one person had died with 50 others injured after the building collapse. Some Bangkok metro services were suspended. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra declared a state of emergency.
In the southern Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi, bordering Myanmar, local media reported feeling the earthquake strongly. In this area, seismic activity is common due to being above several tectonic plates in a state of constant compression.
The initial tremor occurred at 12:50 local time 16 kilometers northwest of the Burmese city of Sagaing, at a depth of 10 kilometers. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), an aftershock of magnitude 6.4 hit the region about 12 minutes after the initial earthquake.
"We all ran out of the house when the tremors started. I witnessed the collapse of a five-story building. In my neighborhood, everyone is on the street, and no one dares to go back into the buildings," a resident of Yangon, Myanmar's economic center, told Reuters. "The building was swaying. The tremor was extreme and lasted between three and four minutes. Now we have no electricity, although normally we only have power for barely 12 hours a day," another neighbor recounted.
Myanmar is located near a high tectonic activity zone due to the pressure between the Indian subcontinent plate to the south and the Eurasian plate to the north. Information is trickling out from this country, isolated and stunned by a bloody civil war.
After the military coup in February 2021, Myanmar was plunged into a humanitarian crisis that worsened as the fighting between the army and rebel groups escalated. A recent UN report denounces that the war has displaced more than 3.5 million people and that thousands of opponents in Burmese prisons are suffering torture.