KUALA LUMPUR — Around 100 people are still trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed Bangkok skyscraper that was under construction, following a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in central Myanmar yesterday.
The death toll in the Thai capital currently stands at 10 people, Deputy Bangkok Governor Tavida Kamolvej was reported saying.
The Bangkok Post, meanwhile, said 16 people in the city were injured.
The quake that occurred after noon yesterday shook the 30-storey building under construction near Bangkok’s famous Chatuchak market before it collapsed downward in a massive dust cloud. The moment, captured on video and now viral on social media, also saw dozens of people screaming and scrambling for safety.
The immediate estimate of workers trapped under the rubble following the earthquake yesterday was 43.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnviraul was reported this morning saying that around people are still trapped, while 12 have been rescued from the site so far.
Most of them are labourers who worked on the building, according to CNN’s reports.
Anutin also said the 30-storey structure’s collapse was due to the failure of the buildings’ lower columns.
The earthquake’s tremors were felt across Bangkok, where local authorities received over 2,000 reports of structural cracks overnight, mostly in high-rise buildings located in the inner city.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said no completed building had suffered the same fate as the one under construction that collapsed.
However the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has advised residents of two other high-rise buildings to evacuate. One building is located in the Chatuchak district and the other in Phra Khanong district, and both are to be inspected for damage, the authority said.
The city’s BTS Skytrain service was also temporarily shut down for safety inspections. – March 29, 2025