Eyewitnesses describe earthquake hitting Myanmar and Bangkok

Sky News

28-03-2025

Witnesses have described the chaos as an earthquake struck Myanmar, with tremors felt 560 miles away in Bangkok.
At least 144 people have died in Myanmar with more than 730 injured, while in Thailand eight people were killed and 81 are trapped after a skyscraper collapsed.
Myanmar's state broadcaster gave the first update on fatalities on Friday afternoon as the country's military warned there would be more deaths and casualties.
As emergency workers in both countries respond to the disaster, we hear from people in Bangkok and Myanmar who witnessed the natural disaster.
'There was a lot of screaming'
Paul Vincent, a tourist visiting the Thai capital from England, was at a streetside bar when the quake struck.
"The next thing, everybody came on the street, so there was a lot of screaming and panicking, which obviously made it a lot worse," he said.
As he came out into the street, he saw a high-rise building swaying and water falling from a rooftop pool.
"When I saw the building, oh my God, that's when it hit me," he said.
"There was people crying in the streets and, you know, the panic was horrendous really."
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The earthquake's epicentre is around 12 miles (20km) northeast of Mandalay - Myanmar's ancient royal capital.
One witness in the city said: "We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking.
"I witnessed a five-storey building collapse in front of my eyes. Everyone in my town is out on the road and no one dares to go back inside buildings."
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'I saw smoke just flying out'
Thai pop star and actor Krissada Sukosol Clapp has told Sky News about the moment he witnessed the earthquake in Bangkok.
Clapp, a member of the Thai pop band Pru, said: "I was just next door, in another building just about two metres away... I ran down the building, there was smoke."
He added the sound was "almost like thunder, and I saw smoke just flying out" and that the damage "looked like 9/11 to me".
'No earthquake like this in my lifetime'
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 as it moved due to the tremors.
Ms Thirawat and her colleagues then ran down 12 flights of stairs.
"In my lifetime, there was no earthquake like this in Bangkok," she said.
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'I feel sick, it's like a dizzy feeling'
Creamlie Sripputthakun, who lives in Bangkok, was riding a motorbike back home when the earthquake hit.
The 20-year-old told Sky News: "It's the first time for me.
"I feel so weird and strange like I was dizzy."
She adds: "I was going back home by motorcycle and I saw the buildings moving.
"I just know to stay home with my family."
Worshipper saw three die in partial mosque collapse
In Myanmar, at least three people died after a mosque partially collapsed in Taungoo.
An eyewitness said: "We were saying prayers when the shaking started... Three died on the spot."
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'It started to get violent'
Alex MacGregor, a PR consultant who has been living in Bangkok for six months, was working from home and waiting for the delivery of his lunch when the tremors began at around 1.30pm (6.30am) local time.
"I was just waiting for the driver to come with my food and I look in the pool and noticed the water started to kind of lap at the edges... but then it started to get violent," the 36-year-old, originally from Inverness in Scotland said.
"All of a sudden I started feeling faint, like that kind of blood rushing to the head feeling, and I was like - 'am I ill here, or what's going on?'"
He added: "Then I looked up the other condo, which is a really high skyscraper and I saw their pool water coming over the sides and that's when I knew it was an earthquake."
Mr McGregor said experiencing the earthquake was a "weird sensation" and that it was like things were moving in "slow motion".
He added: "I actually went and sat down because I was feeling unsteady on my feet."
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Despite the tremors, Mr MacGregor said people were "remarkably calm" as an alarm went off in his building telling all occupants to evacuate.
"Shortly after I left my condo area to come to a coffee shop... all the shops here in this eastern part of Bangkok were closed, so people were lining the streets," he said.
"We knew there was going to be an aftershock, so I've made my way to an outdoor space and there's a lot of people just sitting out here working on their laptops generally being chill."
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'People running the wrong way down escalators'
Fraser Morton, a Scottish tourist who is in Bangkok, says there was "a lot of screaming, a lot of panic".
He was in a shopping centre looking for camera equipment when "all of a sudden the whole building began to move".
"Immediately, there was screaming and a lot of panic," he said.
"I just started walking calmly at first but then the building started really moving... yeah, a lot of screaming, a lot of panic, people running the wrong way down the escalators, lots of banging and crashing inside the mall."
Mr Morton and thousands of others poured into Benjasiri Park from nearby shopping centres, high rises and apartment buildings along Bangkok's busy Sukhumvit Road.
The park was seen as an open space, safe from nearby high rise buildings.
No warning system meant 'immediate panic'
Cordelia Lynch, Sky News' Asia correspondent, was in the office when the tremors rocked the city.
She said: "Lights started to swing, the windowpanes shook, and people rushed downstairs to evacuate the building.
"There was no warning - despite this being a country still reeling from a devastating tsunami twenty years ago."
She continued: "One of the things I was discussing with people in the hard-hit coastal areas was the importance of a warning system.
"What is hard to believe at this stage... there were no phone alerts that we were aware of."
She noted that the Thai government has responded to the earthquake by calling for the immediate introduction of a mobile phone alert system, but added: "What happened this afternoon was just immediate panic."