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<\/a><\/p>\nThe full extent of death, injury and destruction was not immediately clear \u2014 particularly in Myanmar, one of the world\u2019s poorest countries. It is embroiled in a civil war, and information is tightly controlled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe death toll and injuries are expected to rise,\u201d the head of Myanmar\u2019s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said as he announced on television that at least 144 people were killed and 730 others were injured in his country.<\/p>\n
In Thailand, Bangkok city authorities said 10 people were killed, 16 injured and 101 missing from three construction sites, including the high-rise.<\/p>\n
The 7.7 magnitude quake struck at midday, with an epicenter near Mandalay, Myanmar \u2018s second-largest city. Aftershocks followed, one of them measuring a strong 6.4 magnitude.<\/p>\n
Photos from Myanmar\u2019s capital, Naypyidaw, showed rescue crews pulling victims from the rubble of multiple buildings used to house civil servants.<\/p>\n
Myanmar\u2019s government said blood was in high demand in the hardest-hit areas. In a country where prior governments sometimes have been slow to accept foreign aid, Min Aung Hlaing said Myanmar was ready to accept assistance.<\/p>\n
At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world body is mobilizing to respond to Myanmar\u2019s appeal for international help.<\/p>\n
But as images circulated of buckled and cracked roads, a collapsed bridge and a burst dam, there were concerns about how rescuers would even reach some areas in a country already enduring a humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fear it may be weeks before we understand the full extent of destruction caused by this earthquake,\u201d said Mohammed Riyas, the International Rescue Committee\u2019s Myanmar director.<\/p>\n
Bridge and monastery collapse and dam bursts in Myanmar
\nIn Mandalay, the earthquake reportedly brought down multiple buildings, including the Ma Soe Yane monastery, one of the largest in the city, and damaged the former royal palace. A video posted online showed robed monks in the street, shooting their own video of the multistory monastery before it suddenly fell into the ground. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was harmed.<\/p>\n
Christian Aid said its partners and colleagues on the ground reported that a dam burst in the city, causing water levels to rise in the lowland areas.<\/p>\n
In the Sagaing region just southwest of the city, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and some sections of the highway connecting Mandalay and Myanmar\u2019s largest city, Yangon, were also damaged.<\/p>\n
Yangon residents rushed out of their homes when the quake struck. In Naypyitaw, some homes stood partly crumbled, while rescuers heaved away bricks from the piles of debris. An injured man reclined on a wheeled stretcher, while another man fanned him in the heat.<\/p>\n
In a country where many people already were struggling, \u201cthis disaster will have left people devastated,\u201d said Julie Mehigan, who oversees Christian Aid\u2019s work in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven before this heartbreaking earthquake, we know conflict and displacement has left countless people in real need,\u201d Mehigan said.<\/p>\n
Myanmar\u2019s military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, and is now involved in a bloody civil war with long-established militias and newly formed pro-democracy ones.<\/p>\n
Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places are incredibly dangerous or simply impossible for aid groups to reach. More than 3 million people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n
Bangkok building collapsed in a cloud of dust
\nIn Thailand, a 33-story building under construction crumpled into a cloud of dust near Bangkok\u2019s popular Chatuchak market, and onlookers could be seen screaming and running in a video posted on social media. Vehicles on a nearby freeway came to a stop.<\/p>\n
Sirens blared across the Thai capital\u2019s downtown as a rescuers streamed to the wreckage. Above them, shredded steel and broken concrete blocks, some stacked like pancakes, rose in a towering heap. Injured people were rushed away on gurneys, and hospital beds were also wheeled outside onto a sidewalk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great tragedy,\u201d Deputy Prime Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said after viewing the site, adding that there was hope that there were still survivors.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s elevated rapid transit system and subway shut down.<\/p>\n
While the area is prone to earthquakes, they are usually not so powerful and rarely are felt in the Thai capital. The greater metropolitan area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.<\/p>\n
Voranoot Thirawat, a lawyer working in central Bangkok, said her first indication that something was wrong came when she saw a light swinging back and forth. Then she heard the building creaking, and she and her colleagues fled down 12 flights of stairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my lifetime, there was no earthquake like this in Bangkok,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, was in one of Bangkok\u2019s many malls when the quake struck.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden, the whole building began to move. Immediately, there was screaming and a lot of panic,\u201d he said. Some people fled down upward-moving escalators, he said.<\/p>\n
Nearby, Paul Vincent, a tourist visiting from England, recalled seeing a high-rise building swaying, water falling from a rooftop pool and people crying in the streets.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Geological Survey and Germany\u2019s GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to preliminary reports. Shallower earthquakes tend to cause more damage.<\/p>\n
Injuries reported in China
\nTo the northeast, the earthquake was felt in China\u2019s Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and caused damage and injuries in the city of Ruili on the border with Myanmar, according to Chinese media reports.<\/p>\n
Videos that one outlet said were shot by a person in Ruili showed building debris littering a street and a person being wheeled in a stretcher toward an ambulance.<\/p>\n
The shaking in Mangshi, a Chinese city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Ruili, was so strong that people couldn\u2019t stand, one resident told The Paper, an online media outlet.<\/p>\n
_____
\nAdam Schreck, Haruka Naga, Jerry Harmer, Grant Peck and Penny Wang in Bangkok, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BANGKOK (AP) \u2014 A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand on Friday, destroying buildings, a bridge and a dam. At least 144 people were killed in Myanmar, where photos and video from two hard-hit cities showed extensive damage. At least 10 died in the Thai capital, where a high-rise under construction collapsed. The full […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-traffic-fire","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3818737352514062839.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189859,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189857\/revisions\/189859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/189858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}