Scramble at 30-storey Bangkok building reduced to rubble

BBC News

28-03-2025

As the sun sets over Bangkok, hundreds of rescue workers desperately search for survivors at the collapsed 30-storey skyscraper on a construction site in Thailand's capital.Rescuers are trying to reach dozens of workers trapped in the rubble after the skyscraper collapsed.Standing on a bridge a short distance from the scene, under the orange glow of the sky, a group of reporters, including myself, look on in disbelief at the three-storey-high piles of concrete. Twisted wire and metal jut out.Even as more professional rescue and military teams arrive and floodlights are erected, there seems little chance of finding many survivors.A shallow magnitude 7.7 quake hit central Myanmar and was followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.4 aftershock, toppling buildings and rupturing roads. Here, across the border in Thailand, the shocks and devastation were also felt. Residents struggle to respond to a natural disaster few are accustomed to.
I was at my house when the shakes started and it was unlike anything I had felt before.The collapsed building, belonging to the national audit office, was under construction for three years at a cost of more than two billion Thai baht (£45m) — now reduced to rubble. White tents have been erected at the perimeter as rescuers in bright yellow hard hats work to free an estimated 81 people still trapped beneath the collapsed skyscraper.
Live: Follow the latest on the Myanmar earthquakeWatch: Moment Bangkok high-rise under construction collapsesEyewitnesses describe horror in quake's aftermath What we know so farIn pictures: Damaged buildings and buckled roads
Thai Defence Minister Phumtham Wechachai told reporters three people had been confirmed dead. A little under an hour ago, I saw two covered bodies being carried to the tents.The road next to the building is full of fire engines, ambulances and other rescue vehicles. Curious civilians have joined us on the bridge, watching in an attempt to understand what is happening.Heavy machinery is beginning to arrive including a large crane. Rescuers say they need them to remove the debris before they can start searching for the missing.
I arrived less than an hour after the collapse to find construction workers covered in dust, stunned by what they had just survived.Adisorn Kamphasorn had been bringing materials down from the sixth floor when he suddenly felt the tremor. The 18-year-old looked up the stairwell and saw a crane shaking. He told me: "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."He had not spoken to his family yet because he lost his phone in the chaos, saying he had never experienced anything like it in his life. He thought he was going to die.The construction workers tell me they were a mixture of Thai and Burmese.Nukul Khemutha, 30, was working on the fifth floor when he felt the tremors. He looked up and saw all the floors sinking, holes forming. He said one of his colleagues had just gone up to the tenth floor to use the bathroom and they are still waiting for news of his whereabouts. He told me: "We were all just screaming 'run' and telling each other to hold hands and run together."When I spoke to them, they sat there smoking, trying to calm down. They looked sad. None of the survivors had received medical help, as all the attention was focused on those still trapped.As the sound of drilling intensifies, rescue workers face a long night ahead.