Tourists Caught In Chaos When Strong Earthquake Struck Bangkok

New Delhi:

Tourists in Thailand’s capital Bangkok were caught in chaos on Friday when a strong earthquake struck the region. On the streets and shopping malls, people screamed in panic before they were evacuated.

Fraser Morton, a tourist who was in one of Bangkok’s many malls shopping for camera equipment, said when the building began to move there was panic and people were “running the wrong way down the escalators,” news agency AP reported.

“I was in this building right behind me. It was a shopping mall and I was there to buy camera equipment. And all of a sudden the whole building just began to move. Immediately there was screaming, there was a lot of panic,” Mr Morton said.

“I just started walking calmly at first, but then the building started really moving. And yeah, a lot of screaming, a lot of panic. People running the wrong way down the escalators, like lots of banging and crashing inside the mall. I got outside and then looked up at the building, that one there, and this whole building was just moving. Dust and debris – it was pretty intense,” he said.

Paul Vincent, a tourist from England, saw water coming from the top of one tall building and other buildings swaying. “There was a lot of screaming and panicking,” he said.

“I was sitting in a bar and restaurant… just talking to a stranger there, and the next thing, because it was a small bar, we just felt a movement… But the next thing, everybody came on the street. So there was a lot of screaming and panicking, which obviously made it a lot worse,” Mr Vincent said.

The earthquake was followed by a strong 6.4 magnitude aftershock, and people in Bangkok evacuated from their buildings were cautioned to stay outside in case there were more.

A high-rise building under construction in Bangkok collapsed. The police told AP they were responding to the scene near Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak Market, and had no immediate information on how many workers were on the site at the time of the collapse.

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake caused hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate from their homes and workplaces.

The US Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ centre for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 km, with an epicentre in Myanmar, according to preliminary reports.

The greater Bangkok area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.

The quakes wrought widespread damage, particularly in Myanmar, where buildings fell onto their sides, roads cracked open, and the well-known Ava bridge collapsed near the epicentre.

In the capital Naypyidaw, news agency AFP reported the entrance of the emergency department at the city’s main hospital pancaked onto a car. Wounded at the 1,000-bed facility were being treated outside, intravenous drips hanging from their gurneys. Some writhed in pain, others lay still as relatives sought to comfort them, AFP reported.

A hospital official ushered journalists away, saying: “this is a mass casualty area.” Another official said hundreds of injured people had arrived at the facility.

With inputs from agencies