Rescuers dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings on Saturday in a desperate search for survivors after a huge earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand, killing more than 150 people, reports BSS.
The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake struck northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar in the early afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
The quake destroyed buildings, downed bridges, and buckled roads across swathes of Myanmar, with severe damage reported in the second biggest city, Mandalay.
At least 144 people were killed and over 700 injured in Myanmar, according to junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, but with communications disrupted, the true scale of the disaster has yet to emerge from the isolated military-ruled state.
It was the biggest quake to hit Myanmar in over a century, according to US geologists, and the tremors were powerful enough to severely damage buildings across Bangkok, hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from the epicentre.
Rescuers in the Thai capital worked through the night searching for workers trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed, reduced in seconds to a pile of rubble and twisted metal by the force of the shaking.
Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt told AFP that around 10 people had been confirmed killed across the city, most in the skyscraper collapse.
But up to 100 workers were still unaccounted for at the building, close to the Chatuchak weekend market that is a magnet for tourists.
"We are doing our best with the resources we have because every life matters," Chadchart told reporters at the scene.
"Our priority is acting as quickly as possible to save them all."
Bangkok city authorities said they will deploy more than 100 engineers to inspect buildings for safety after receiving over 2,000 reports of damage.
Up to 400 people were forced to spend the night in the open air in city parks as their homes were not safe to return to, Chadchart said.
Significant quakes are extremely rare in Bangkok, and Friday's tremors sent shoppers and workers rushing into the street in alarm across the city.
While there was no widespread destruction, the shaking brought some dramatic images of rooftop swimming pools sloshing their contents down the side of many of the city's towering apartment blocks and hotels.
Even hospitals were evacuated, with one woman delivering her baby outdoors after being moved from a hospital building. A surgeon also continued to operate on a patient after evacuating, completing the operation outside, a spokesman told AFP.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
