BANGKOK — A 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Thailand and neighboring Myanmar noon on Friday, inflicting the collapse of a high-rise constructing beneath development in Bangkok and forcing lots of of hundreds to evacuate from their houses and workplaces.

The noon temblor was adopted by a powerful 6.4 magnitude aftershock.

Potential casualties from the constructing collapse close to Bangkok’s well-liked Chatuchak market should not but identified, police mentioned, and there was no quick data on what number of employees have been on the positioning on the time.

A dramatic video circulated on social media confirmed the multi-story constructing with a crane on prime collapsing right into a cloud of mud, whereas onlookers screamed and ran.

Individuals in Bangkok evacuated from their buildings have been cautioned to remain outdoors in case there have been extra aftershocks.

The U.S. Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ middle for geosciences mentioned the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), with an epicenter in Myanmar, in accordance with preliminary experiences.

“Abruptly the entire constructing started to maneuver. Instantly there was screaming and quite a lot of panic,” mentioned Fraser Morton, a vacationer from Scotland, who was in one among Bangkok’s many malls searching for digicam gear.

“I simply began strolling calmly at first however then the constructing began actually transferring, yeah, quite a lot of screaming, quite a lot of panic, individuals operating the incorrect means down the escalators, a lot of banging and crashing contained in the mall.”

Like Morton, hundreds of individuals poured into Benjasiri Park from close by purchasing malls, excessive rises and condominium buildings alongside Bangkok’s busy Sukhumvit Highway.

Many have been on telephones making an attempt to achieve family members as others sought shade from the recent early afternoon solar. Others stared up fearfully on the tall buildings within the densely packed a part of town.

“I received outdoors after which regarded up on the constructing and the entire constructing was transferring, mud and particles, it was fairly intense,” Morton mentioned. “A number of chaos.”

The sound of sirens echoed all through central Bangkok and autos stuffed the road, leaving a number of the metropolis’s already congested streets gridlocked. The elevated fast transit system and subway have been shut down.

Metropolis corridor declared town a catastrophe space to facilitate interagency help and emergency assist.

Paul Vincent, a vacationer visiting from England, was at a streetside bar when the quake struck.

“The following factor, all people got here on the road, so there was quite a lot of screaming and panicking, which clearly made it loads worse,” he mentioned.

As he got here onto the road himself, he mentioned he noticed a high-rise constructing swaying and water was falling from a rooftop pool.

“Once I noticed the constructing, oh my God, that is when … it hit me,” he mentioned. “There was individuals crying within the streets and, you already know, the panic was horrendous actually.”

In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest metropolis and near the epicenter, the earthquake broken a part of the previous royal palace and buildings, in accordance with movies and photographs launched on Fb social media.

Whereas the realm is vulnerable to earthquakes, it’s usually sparsely populated, and most homes are low-rise constructions.

Within the Sagaing area simply southwest of Mandalay, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and a few sections of the freeway connecting Mandalay and Myanmar’s largest metropolis, Yangon, have been additionally broken.

Residents in Yangon rushed out of their houses when the quake struck. There have been no quick experiences of accidents or deaths.

Within the capital Naypyitaw, the quake broken spiritual shrines, sending components toppling to the bottom, and a few houses.

To the northeast, the earthquake was felt in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China and brought on harm to homes and accidents within the metropolis of Ruili on the border with Myanmar, in accordance with Chinese language media experiences.

Movies that one outlet mentioned it had obtained from an individual in Ruili confirmed constructing particles littering a road and an individual being wheeled in a stretcher towards an ambulance.

The shaking in Mangshi, a Chinese language metropolis about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Ruili, was so sturdy that folks could not stand, one resident instructed The Paper, a web based media outlet.

A resident of Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan, instructed The Paper that her ceiling lamp was swinging wildly and the shaking lasted greater than 10 seconds.

In Bangkok, alarms went off in buildings because the earthquake hit round 1:30 p.m., and startled residents have been evacuated down staircases of high-rise condominiums and resorts.

The larger Bangkok space is residence to greater than 17 million individuals, lots of whom reside in high-rise residences.

Water from high-rise rooftop swimming pools sloshed over the aspect as they shook, and particles fell from many buildings because the long-lasting earthquake rattled town.

“I’ve skilled earthquakes twice earlier than in Myanmar, however that was just one second, one massive bang, however right here it went on for not less than, I would say, a minute,” mentioned Zsuzsanna Vari-Kovacs, a Hungarian resident of Bangkok, who had simply completed consuming at a restaurant when the quake hit.

“My husband was in a high-rise, I feel that is even worse.”

Thailand’s Division of Catastrophe Prevention mentioned the quake was felt in virtually all areas of the nation.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra referred to as an emergency assembly to evaluate the impression of the quake.