Over 10,000 feared dead in Myanmar earthquake as shockwaves collapse skyscraper 800 miles away in Bangkok

28 March 2025, 11:53 | Updated: 28 March 2025, 12:02

Over 10,000 people may have died in a huge earthquake that struck Myanmar on Friday, whose shockwaves were strong enough to collapse a building hundreds of miles in Bangkok.

The earthquake hit near Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, at around 6.20 UK time, which is early afternoon local time. Myanmar declared an emergency incident.

The US Geological Society (USGS), which first recorded the 7.7 quake, estimated deaths at between 10,000 and 100,000. Economic damage was pegged at as much as 70% of Myanmar's GDP - which would mean about $36 billion.

These are early estimates and the death toll remains unclear, but one emergency worker in Myanmar said the number of victims was at least in the hundreds.

The earthquake's epicentre was ten miles northwest of the Burmese city of Sagaing. Sagaing is near Mandalay, which has a population of around 1.2 million.

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A second earthquake - smaller but still large - of 6.4 on the Richter scale took place a few minutes after the first.

The USGS said that buildings in Myanmar and Thailand are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. The agency said: "The population in this region resides in structures that are vulnerable to earthquake shaking, though resistant structures exist.

"The predominant vulnerable building types are informal (metal, timber, GI etc.) and unreinforced brick masonry construction."

Footage shared online shows Mandalay's Ava Bridge, a large suspension bridge built in 1934, collapsing. Mandalay international airport also appears to be closed.

In the capital Naypyitaw, the earthquake damaged religious shrines, sending parts toppling to the ground, and some homes.

Myanmar is in the middle of a civil war.

Dozens of deaths caused by collapsing buildings were reported by the local media. A local official described a hospital in Mandalay as a "mass casualty area".

The destructive impact of the earthquake was felt in Thailand, China, India and Vietnam.

One under-construction skyscraper in Bangkok, around 800 miles from the epicentre, collapsed dramatically during the quake, with around 70 people missing and at least two dead.

A senior police officer said he heard people calling for help as he arrived to inspect the site.

The region suffers fairly regular earthquakes as it is close to seismic fault lines, but this is the strongest to hit for decades. Nearly all earthquakes felt in Thailand take place in Myanmar.

Elsewhere in Bangkok, the earthquake was forceful enough to send water sloshing out of pools, some high up in high-rises, as the tremor shook.

One resident said she was "very nervous" and "very panicked".

She added: "In my apartment I just see some cracking on the walls and water splashed out of swimming pools and people just yelling.”

Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, who was in a shopping centre when the earthquake took place, said the event sparked "lots of chaos".

"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."

He sought refuge in Benjasiri Park, away from the tall buildings."I got outside and then looked up at the building and the whole building was moving, dust and debris, it was pretty intense," he said.

Alarms went off in buildings as the earthquake hit around 1.30pm local time, and startled residents were evacuated down staircases of high-rise buildings and hotels in densely populated central Bangkok.

They remained in the streets, seeking shade from the midday sun in the minutes after the quake.

The quake was forceful enough to send water sloshing out of pools, some high up in high-rises, as the tremor shook.

Thailand's Department of Disaster Prevention said the earthquake was felt in almost all regions of the country. The Prime Minister is said to be holding an emergency meeting to coordinate the response to the earthquake.