Strong earthquake strikes central Myanmar, shakes buildings in Thailand
Social Sharing
A strong 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Thailand and neighbouring Myanmar on Friday, bringing down a skyscraper under construction in Bangkok and toppling buildings in Mandalay.
At least one person was killed in Bangkok and dozens of workers rescued from under the rubble of the skyscraper, Thailand's National Institute of Emergency Medicine said.
Witnesses in the city said people ran out onto the streets in panic, many of them hotel guests in bathrobes and swimming costumes as water cascaded down from an elevated pool at a luxury hotel.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake was of 7.7 magnitude and at a depth of 10 kilometres. It was followed by a powerful aftershock.
The epicentre was about 17.2 kilometres from the city of Mandalay, which has a population of about 1.5 million people.
Myanmar's military-run government has declared a state of emergency in six regions.
Two eyewitnesses from the town of Taungnoo in Myanmar's Bago region told Reuters that at least three people have died after a mosque partially collapsed.
"We were saying prayers when the shaking started... Three died on the spot," said one of the people who spoke to Reuters.
An officer from the Myanmar Fire Services Department told Reuters: "We have started the search and going around Yangon to check for casualties and damage. So far, we have no information yet."
Social media posts from Mandalay, Myanmar's ancient royal capital that is at the centre of its Buddhist heartland, showed collapsed buildings and debris strewn across streets of the city. Reuters could not immediately verify the posts.
One witness in the city told Reuters: "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."
Another witness in the city, Htet Naing Oo, told Reuters that a tea shop had collapsed with several people trapped inside. "We couldn't go in," she said. "The situation is very bad."
A third witness said a mosque in the city was badly damaged.
China's Xinhua news agency said strong tremors were felt in southwestern Yunnan province which borders Myanmar, but there were no reports of casualties.
Witnesses contacted in Yangon said many people ran out from buildings in the city, the largest in the country.
Meanwhile, witnesses in Bangkok said one downtown office tower swayed from side to side for at least two minutes, with doors and windows creaking loudly.
Hundreds of employees filed out via emergency stairs as some shocked and panicked workers froze. Loud shrieks could be heard as the building continued to sway.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
a day ago
'I stood up and ran': Miraculous survival of Air India passenger with 241 confirmed deaths
Air India confirmed Ramesh Viswashkumar is the lone survivor out of the 242 people aboard an Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad (new window) soon after takeoff on Thursday. He had been sitting near an emergency exit of the London-bound flight and managed to jump out, police said. Speaking from his hospital bed, the 40-year-old told Indian media that he was a British national, and was travelling back home with his brother after visiting family in India. When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital, Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times. Rescue personnel stand next to the wreckage of the Air India plane, which was bound for London's Gatwick Airport. Photo: Associated Press / Ajit Solanki Social media footage shown on Indian news channels showed a man in a bloodstained white T-shirt and dark pants limping on a street and being helped by a medic. The man had bruises on his face and a goatee beard, resembling photographs of Viswashkumar in hospital after the crash that were published by local media. Reuters could not immediately verify the video, in which people gathered around the man and asked him where the other passengers were, to which he replied they're all inside. A photo of Viswashkumar's boarding pass shown online by the Hindustan Times showed that he was seated in seat 11A of the plane bound for London's Gatwick Airport. He told the paper his brother, Ajay, had been seated in a different row on the plane and asked for help to find him. A member of Viswashkumar's family based in Britain, who requested anonymity, told Reuters over the phone that he had survived and that the family was in touch with him, but declined to share further details. Ajay Valgi, a cousin of Viswashkumar who lives in Leicester, central England, told the BBC that Viswashkumar spoke by phone to confirm he was all right. He only said that he was fine, nothing else, Valgi said. Valgi said the family had not heard anything about his brother. We're not doing well. We're all upset, he said. Viswashkumar is married with one child, a boy, he added. The aircraft came down in a residential area of Ahmedabad, in northwestern India, crashing into a medical college hostel outside the airport during lunchtime — the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. Air India posted to X, confirming the deaths of 229 passengers and all 12 crew members, with the lone survivor being treated in hospital. VideoCanadian aboard Air India crash identified (new window) VideoCrews respond to Air India crash (new window) Thomson Reuters
2 days ago
1 passenger survives after Air India flight bound for London crashes with 242 aboard
The Latest: Boeing Dreamliner crashed 5 minutes after takeoff in India Thursday afternoon. Plane crashed into medical college building in Ahmedabad. Flight was scheduled to arrive at London's Gatwick Airport Thursday evening. Canadian citizen from Mississauga, Ont., was on the flight. Modi, Carney, Anand among officials expressing condolences to affected families. Officials say at least 1 person survived. One passenger survived the crash of an Air India plane bound for London that killed at least 240 people on Thursday in Ahmedabad, one of India's worst airline disasters in decades, officials said. The death toll includes medical students who were in a college hostel when the plane hit the building shortly after takeoff, said Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer in the northwestern city. Most of the bodies have been charred beyond recognition, she said. Indian Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed that a single passenger survived the crash and said he met him at the hospital. A doctor said he had examined the survivor, whom he identified as Vishwashkumar Ramesh. Air India confirmed he's a British National of Indian descent. (new window) He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body, Dr. Dhaval Gameti told The Associated Press. But he seems to be out of danger. Another medic said Ramesh told him that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split into two, which is when he was thrown out, followed by a loud explosion. Members of the local community stand outside the family home of Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British survivor of the London-bound Air India crash near Ahmedabad Airport in India, in Leicester, England, on Thursday. (Phil Noble/Reuters) Photo: (Phil Noble/Reuters) According to the medic, Ramesh said he found himself next to debris and walked to a nearby ambulance that brought him to the hospital. Ramesh, who had his boarding pass with him in the hospital, told local newspaper Hindustan Times (new window) that he saw bodies and parts of the plane strewn around the crash site. When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran, he told the newspaper. Ramesh, 40, was travelling to London with his brother. He was sitting in seat 11A, near the emergency exit, he told the paper. Début du widget Twitter. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Twitter. Retourner au début du widget ? Flight was bound for London Gatwick Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed and burst into flames near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than five million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state. Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, and surrounding multi-storey buildings with water. Charred bodies lay on the ground. The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us, said Modi. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Minister Anita Anand acknowledged the death of one Canadian in separate statements, with both indicating the federal government was in contact with counterparts in India. CBC News has confirmed that a dentist from Mississauga, Ont., was the Canadian citizen. The husband of Nirali Sureshkumar Patel had first confirmed she was on the plane to The Canadian Press. He told the news agency he was in the process of booking travel to India for himself and the couple's one-year-old child. The husband of Nirali Sureshkumar Patel has confirmed she was among the 240 passengers on a London-bound flight that crashed Thursday. Photo: 1st Dreamliner crash Air India's chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, said at the moment our primary focus is on supporting all the affected people and their families. He said on X that the airline had set up an emergency centre and support team for families seeking information about those who were on the flight. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event, he said. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the scenes in India devastating and said he was being updated as the situation develops, and my thoughts are with the passengers and their families at this deeply distressing time. King Charles also expressed condolences on behalf of himself and Queen Camilla. The king also paid tribute to the heroic efforts of the emergency services and all those providing help and support at this most heartbreaking and traumatic time. The 787 Dreamliner is a widebody, twin-engined plane. This is the first crash ever of a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The aircraft was introduced in 2009 and more than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airlines, according to the flightradar24 website. American Airlines has the largest Dreamliner fleet, while Air Canada also has dozens in operation. WATCH | Warning: Graphic footage: Début du widget Widget. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Widget. Retourner au début du widget ? CCTV footage shows Air India plane taking off on runway in Ahmedabad and crashing Footage appears to show Flight AI 171 rising and then quickly losing altitude. The plane, en route to London, crashed into a building in Ahmedabad . Takeoff one of the hardest parts of a flight: expert While takeoffs and landings are the most dangerous phases of a flight, John McDermid, a computer science professor at the University of York, noted that the plane climbed above 200 metres. Pilots can abort takeoff until quite late, McDermid said. So it seems like the problem occurred very suddenly in the final part of the takeoff roll, or shortly after takeoff, and was sufficiently serious to be unmanageable. He also said that jets have many backup systems, such as the ability to climb with only one engine, which also made it an unusual accident. Aviation consultant John M. Cox, the CEO of Safety Operating Systems, told AP from Los Angeles that one of the questions investigators will be asking is whether the Air India plane was properly configured for flight with its slats and flaps. While Cox stressed it was too early to make any conclusions, he said that based on admittedly grainy images of the flight it doesn't look like that the trailing edge flaps are in the position I would have expected them to be. The image shows the airplane with the nose rising and it continuing to sink,'' he said. That says that the airplane is not making enough lift.'' The crash occurs amid reports that the U.S. Justice Department reached a deal recently with Boeing that would allow the airplane giant to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading American regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two crashes which killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. Those Boeing crashes occurred five months apart in Indonesia and in Ethiopia, with 18 Canadian citizens among the dead in the Ethiopian incident. Medic says survivor walked from crash site to ambulance. Photo: Associated Press / Ajit Solanki In an updated statement, Boeing said, We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected, the company said. Shares of Boeing Co. were down more than three per cent in early Wall Street trading, CNBC reported. The Federal Aviation Administration said that through the National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S government officials would be able to assist in the investigation should India make such a request. The board helps determine the causes of about 450 international crashes every year. The last major plane crash in India occurred in 2020 when an Air India Express Boeing 737 skidded off a runway in the southern city of Kozhikode, killing 18 people. The Associated Press with files from CBC News
CTV News
04-06-2025
- CTV News
Bank of Canada again holds key interest rate at 2.75%
The Bank of Canada is seen in Ottawa, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang The Bank of Canada announced Wednesday it will hold its key interest rate at 2.75 per cent. The majority of economists in a Reuters poll were expecting the second straight rate hold from the central bank. Canada's headline inflation rate slowed to 1.7 per cent year-over-year in April, down from 2.3 per cent in March, Statistics Canada reported last month. This is a developing story. More information to come.
