An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 and a depth of 10 kilometers has shaken this Friday the northwest of Myanmar, the United States geological service has reported, and unleashed panic in Yangon, the largest city in the country and even in Bangkok, capital of neighboring Thailand, about 1,000 km to the south. The earthquake has felt even in Yunnan, in southwest China. The authorities of both countries have not yet confirmed whether the tremor has caused dead, but the collapse of a scarthes under construction in Bangkok has buried at least 43 workers, according to medical sources cited by AFP. The city authorities have decreed the state of emergency, the Thai Prime Minister, Paetongtran Shinawatra, reported. Also in Mandalay, second city of Myanmar, some buildings have collapsed.
An official of the Myanmar Fire Services Department has assured that his department has begun the search around Yangon to check if there are fatalities. Several witnesses have assured that the population had abandoned the buildings of that city to the race when feeling the shakes.
Also in Bangkok, panic spread after the tremor. Several witnesses have reported that people ran to the streets, including many hotels in the swimsuit and bathrobe. Several videos taken in the Thai capital show the shakes in the buildings that made, in one of them – a skyscraper – the water of a pool located on the roof is spilled through the facade of the property.
The epicenter of the earthquake was about 17.2 kilometers from Mandalay, a city that was ancient capital of the kingdom of Myanmar, and which has 1.5 million inhabitants. The publications on the social networks of its inhabitants show collapsed buildings and debris in the streets. “We ran out of home when it all started.
Another witness cited by that news agency, identified as Htet Naing OO, said that a tea store had collapsed and that several people had been trapped inside. “We could not,” he lamented before stating that the situation in the city “is very bad.” A third inhabitant recounted that the city mosque has suffered serious damage to tremors.
The Chinese news agency Xinhua has later confirmed that the earthquake was even southwest of the province of Yunnan, border with Myanmar, where strong tremors were recorded.
