🔴 Website 👉 https://u-s-news.com/
Telegram 👉 https://t.me/usnewscom_channel
OAN Staff James Meyers
8:39 AM – Friday, March 28, 2025
Thousands are feared dead after a destructive 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Southeast Asia on Friday, bringing down a massive skyscraper in Thailand and toppling buildings, including a mosque, in neighboring nation Myanmar.
Advertisement
Terrifying footage revealed bodies being lined up in the rubble as rescuers looked for survivors from the powerful quake, whose epicenter was detected near Mandalay, which is Myanmar’s second-biggest city.
As a total number of deaths wasn’t immediately clear, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) issued a red alert, estimating that deaths could range between 1,000 and 10,000.
“High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” the federal agency warned, noting that “past red alerts have required a national or international response.”
The shallow tremor struck central Myanmar in the afternoon, and was followed just minutes later by a 6.4 magnitude aftershock.
Video circulating on social media showed a 30-story building with a crane on top crumbling into rubble near the city’s popular Chatuchak market as panicked witnesses sprinted from the scene.
Meanwhile, seven people have already been pulled from the destruction, as dozens were unaccounted for, Thailand’s Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said, citing that the area was still too unstable for rescue crews to find people trapped beneath.
Bangkok’s governor Chadchart Sittipunt said at least two other deaths had been confirmed in Thailand’s capital.
Bangkok is called home to more than 17 million people, most of whom live in high-rise apartment buildings.
In Myanmar, three people have been confirmed dead in the town of Taungoo when a mosque partially collapsed.
Local media also reported that at least two people died and 20 others were injured after a hotel collapsed in the city of Aung Ban.
USGS said the deadly quake, which struck at lunchtime, was of 7.7 magnitude and at a depth of 6.2 miles.
As a result, sirens echoed throughout the city and vehicles flooded the street in the aftermath, leaving city streets gridlocked.
Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, said he was in a shopping mall when the tremor hit.
“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.”
“I got outside and then looked up at the building and the whole building was moving, dust and debris, it was pretty intense,” he added. “Lots of chaos.”
Additionally, Myanmar’s military declared a state of emergency in multiple regions in the wake of the earthquake, but the country is in the midst of a lasting bloody civil war, causing people to panic that help may not come.
“We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking. I witnessed a five-story building collapse in front of my eyes. Everyone in my town is out on the road and no one dares to go back inside buildings,” one witness told Reuters.
According to experts, the rapid development pace in Myanmar’s cities, combined with crumbling infrastructure and poor urban planning, has made the country’s highest populated areas vulnerable to earthquakes and other seismic disasters.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisements below