Severe earthquakes in Myanmar – authorities speak of numerous victims

Disaster in Southeast Asia

Heavy earthquakes – according to the authorities numerous victims

An earthquake with epicenter in Myanmar shaked the region on Friday morning. A high -rise collapsed in Bangkok hundreds of kilometers away.

Myanmar shaked a strong earthquake on Friday morning. According to the German Geo -Research Institute (GFZ) in Potsdam, the quake reached a thickness of 7.6 on the Richter scale. It occurred at 12.20 p.m. local time around 26 kilometers northwest of the City of Sagaing. The Institute United States Geological Survey even reports a thickness of 7.7.

According to the information, the epicenter was 17.2 kilometers away from Mandalay. There are said to be numerous victims in the capital Naypyidaw. As official representatives said, numerous streets were damaged near one of the most important hospitals in the city, traffic jams and delays in ambulances occurred. Injured people were partially supplied on the streets.

According to media reports, at least 15 people died in the collapse of a mosque in Myanmar after the violent earthquake. This was reported by the Khit Thit Media news agency, citing emergency services. According to the information, the mosque stood in the city of Mandalay. The collapse therefore happened during a service. A witness reported Reuters: “So far we have recovered four corpses. It could be more.”

The military junta, which Myanmar has ruled since a coup in 2021, imposed the state of emergency in response to the earthquake in six regions of the country.

The earthquake was felt to Thailand. The Thai government has declared the emergency in the capital Bangkok.

The exact depth of the quake has not yet been determined. However, experts assume that it is an earthquake that is close to the surface. Such quakes are usually significantly more felt than deeper shocks of comparable strength.

In Mandalaywith around 1.2 million inhabitants, the country’s second largest city, the shocks may have been very strong. The city is only 38 kilometers from the epicenter – according to a seismological assessment, people there experienced tremendous tremors with an intensity in the area “very strong”.

The authorities in the region are currently examining the extent of the effects. In Bangkok, however, a high -rise building under construction has collapsed. Photos and videos show the destruction. Rescue workers said that 43 workers were included under the rubble of the skyscraper. According to government, at least three people died in the collapse.

Around 1:30 p.m. local time in several high -rise buildings in the center of Bangkok, the alarms suddenly hit. Frameled residents and hotel guests were brought outdoors over the stairwells. Dozens of people gathered on the streets of the metropolis in the minutes after the tremor. Many were looking for protection against the scorching sun, but initially stayed outside – out of worry against possible aftershocks.

The German Nataly Wanhoff was shopping at Ikea in Bangkok when she felt the earthquake. “I experienced something like this as a child, so I knew what that was and I immediately walked out,” she said T-Online. Employees of the Mega Bangna Shopping Center, in which the furniture store is located, would have evacuated the building immediately. “They did that very well. Everyone is out and waited in the parking lot”. She was pretty frightened, but at the same time glad that she was not in a skyscraper in downtown Bangkok at that time.

Although Bangkok is hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter, the earthquake clearly showed its strength. The earthquake damaged numerous high -rise buildings in Bangkok, said the governor. The programmer Wiwat Sathornsawat was just at his desk in Bangkok when the earth trembled. “I thought I would pass out,” he said T-Online. “I saw that the lamp moved back and forth, then I left my house. It was the first time that I experienced something like that in Bangkok.”