Shaken hours earlier by a massive earthquake, Phatsakon Kaewkla's terror was magnified when he came home to find gaping cracks in the walls of his 22nd-floor Bangkok apartment.
Feeling unsafe in the building damaged by the biggest tremors to hit Bangkok in generations, the 23-year-old Thai decided to stay away for two days until experts gave the high-rise the all-clear.
The sales coordinator is now one of many Bangkok residents wondering if they should seek safer housing in a city where hundreds of residential buildings were damaged by the 7.7-magnitude quake that struck neighbouring Myanmar on March 28.
The owners of Phatsakon's condominium assured him that engineers had checked every part of the building and said it was safe.
But he is still spooked about the cracks.
"I feel a little bit scared. And also my mum told me to move out from here," he said.
The Thai capital virtually never experiences such tremors.
Bangkok-based real estate consultant Owen Zhu, 40, told AFP that the impact on his sector had been "significant".
"People seem to have realised that living in high-rise buildings might carry greater risks when it comes to earthquake resistance compared to two-story or low-rise structures," the Chinese property expert said.
The earthquake prompted many enquiries from residents looking to relocate in the past week, he says, due to widespread "fear and anxiety" of living far above ground.
Zhu says tenants and property owners often disagree over the safety of quake-damaged apartments, with disputes becoming more common.
"The landlord sees the unit as safe, while the tenant feels it's unsafe and insists on moving out and getting their deposit back".
Zhu says more of his clients now want low-rises.
