Moments after the deadly earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, a 33-storey under-construction building in Bangkok came crashing down in seconds, leaving eight dead.
The skyscraper, being built to house government offices, crumbled into a mass of concrete, steel, and dust.
The workers, some of them in the middle of their shifts, others just arriving, had no time to react. For those working there, the ground trembled at their feet just moments before everything went dark. It wasn’t a gradual shift or a warning rumble, but a sudden, deafening jolt that sent the building into a violent, gut-wrenching collapse.
It was 1:20 p.m. when the quake, centred in Myanmar, jolted through the earth with a 7.7 magnitude. As a consequence, Bangkok – which lies about 1,020 kilometres from the epicentre – also suffered a strong tremor of magnitude 7.1. The force was so strong that it ruptured roads, toppled buildings, and shook Bangkok to its core.
“When my shift ended around 1:00 pm, I went outside to get water and I saw my younger brother before I went out. When I went outside, I saw dust everywhere, and I just ran to escape from the collapsing building,” Khin Aung, a construction worker, recalled the moment to the news agency AFP.
Khin Aung glanced back at the tower just as the air filled with a deafening roar. And then, with terrifying speed, it fell—crushing everything beneath it. “I can’t describe how I feel… it happened in the blink of an eye,” Khin Aung recalled.
Families had already started gathering at the scene, clinging to whatever shred of hope they could find. Relatives of the missing called out into the darkness, desperate for a response. Some had already lost touch with loved ones while praying with eyes locked on the wreckage, waiting for a word about their relatives trapped beneath.
One of those was Waanpetch Panta, hoping for news of her 18-year-old daughter who was working at the site. Waanpetch told Reuters that she last spoke to her daughter just before the tragedy. “All I can do is sit and wait like this I prayed that my daughter was amongst those taken to the hospital already,” said a clearly fatigued Waanpetch.
“Things were falling down from high floors. We were scared and told each other to run away. The rest of the people on the high floors didn’t escape and died under debris. Many of my colleagues are there under that debris. And many Myanmar citizens are here dying,” said Tun Lin Aung recalled while speaking to Reuters. Tun Lin Aung is a Myanmar national living in Thailand as a migrant labourer for nine years now.
Adisorn Kamphasorn, 18, had been bringing materials down from the sixth floor when he suddenly felt the tremor. He looked up at the stairwell and saw a crane shaking.
“I knew it was about to be bad. I ran. It took one minute for it to collapse. All of a sudden, there was smoke everywhere and everything went black. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t have a mask,” Adirson told a BBC reporter.
According to BBC, no survivor received any medical help as all the focus was on those trapped under the rubble.
Over 1,000 people are feared dead in Myanmar and Thailand after the devastating earthquake on Friday. Rescue operations are underway as families wait for news about their trapped relatives.
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