A horrible earthquake of 7.7 Magnitude hit Thailand and Myanmar, destroying buildings and sparking fears that dams could collapse, leading to catastrophic flooding.
The US Geological Survey forecast thousands of losses after the quake struck near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city early on Friday.
The shallow tremor struck central Myanmar at 13.20 local time (6.50GMT), and was followed minutes later by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock.
Officials at a major hospital in Naypyidaw, the capital, declared it a ‘mass casualty area’, with the death toll expected to rise after buildings fell and debris scattered.
”I haven’t seen (something) like this before. We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted now,” a doctor told the AFP news agency.
Professor Ian Main, Personal Chair in Seismology and Rock Physics, School of GeoSciences, at the University of Edinburgh said: ”The damage is likely to be very severe near the epicentre- based on the estimated intensity of ground shaking above, and maps of population density and vulnerability of buildings.
”The USGS ‘PAGER’ forecast loss is, sadly, most likely to be in the range 10,000-100,000 fatalities,” he said, referring to the American agency’s earthquake impact report.
The force caused a mosque in Mandalay to collapse, with at least ten worshippers reported to have been killed.
More than 20 children are also believed to be trapped in a destroyed school in Taungoo, central Myanmar. A Shocking footage showed workers fleeing in neighbouring Thailand as a 30-storey high-rise building under construction in Bangkok collapsed around them.
At least three people were killed as the skyscraper toppled, local authorities saying that dozens of workers have been rescued from the site, though 90 are still missing.
At a 1,000-bed general hospital in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, rows of wounded were treated outside the emergency department, some writhing in pain, others lying still as relatives sought to comfort them.’About 20 people died after they arrived at our hospital so far. Many people were injured,’ said a doctor at the hospital, who requested anonymity. The quake also damaged religious shrines in the capital, sending parts toppling to the ground, and some homes.
In Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city and close to the epicenter, the earthquake damaged part of the former royal palace and buildings, according to videos and photos released on Facebook social media.
While the area is prone to earthquakes, it is generally sparsely populated, and most houses are low-rise structures.In the Sagaing region just southwest of Mandalay, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and some sections of the highway connecting Mandalay and Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, were also damaged.
The Red Cross warned that there was still concern for the state of large dams, exposing risk of flooding.
‘Public infrastructure has been damaged, including roads, bridges and public buildings,’ Marie Manrique, Program Coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross told reporters.
”We currently have concerns for large-scale dams that people are watching to see the conditions of them,’ she said.”
The bridge that connects Mandalay to Sagaing has collapsed – this will cause logistical issues. Sagaing has the largest number of internally displaced people in the country. The earthquake hit Myanmar as it contests with a four-year civil war.
The devastation prompted a rare request for international aid from the country’s isolated military junta, which has lost swathes of territory to armed groups, as it declared a state of emergency across the six worst-affected regions.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday the 27-nation bloc stood ready to help after a strong, deadly earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand.
“Heartbreaking scenes from Myanmar and Thailand after the devastating earthquake. My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” von der Leyen wrote on X.
”Europe’s Copernicus satellites are already helping first responders. We are ready to provide more support,” he added.
The World Health Organization said it had triggered its emergency management system in response to Friday’s ‘huge’ earthquake in Myanmar and was mobilising its logistics hub in Dubai to prepare trauma injury supplies.
The WHO is coordinating its earthquake response from its Geneva headquarters ”because we see this as a huge event’ with ‘clearly a very, very big threat to life and health,” spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a media briefing.
”We’ve activated our logistics hub to look particularly for trauma supplies and things like external fixators because we expect that there will be many, many injuries that need to be dealt with,” Harris said.
She said the WHO would also be concentrating on getting in essential medicines, while the health infrastructure in Myanmar itself might be damaged.
Harris said that due to recent experience with the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes, ”we know very well what you need to send in first,” she said.
