A strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck early afternoon in Myanmar on Friday, causing deaths and damages in the country and Bangkok, the capital of neighbouring Thailand.
At least 144 people were killed in Myanmar, where aid groups have warned damage is significant in hard to reach locations. Another 730 were injured.
“The death toll and injuries are expected to rise,” Senior General Min Aung Hlaing told state-run TV.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake was shallow with a depth of 10 kilometres. Its epicentre was near the Burmese city of Sagaing, close to Mandalay.
A second quake, with a magnitude of 6.4, shook the area 12 minutes later.
Tremors were felt all the way in Bangkok, where eight people were killed and 81 construction workers remain missing after the quake caused a 30-storey building in the capital to collapse in Bangkok's Chatuchak Park area.
Seven were rescued from the rubble of the collapsed building, the National Institute for Emergency Medicine said in a Facebook post.
A video circulated on social media showed the multi-story structure sway and crumble into a cloud of dust as onlookers screamed and ran.
Thai authorities have declared a state of emergency in response to the major earthquake hitting the city, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Friday.
State of emergency in Myanmar
In Myanmar, state-run MRTV said the the military-run government declared a state of emergency across six regions and states.
Major General Zaw Min Tun, a military government spokesperson said blood was in high demand in the hospitals in earthquakes-hit areas, especially Mandalay, Sagaing, and Naypyitaw.
He urged blood donors to contact hospitals as soon as possible.
The Red Cross said initial reports from the ground suggested the earthquake caused "significant damage", adding that damaged power lines were preventing their teams from reaching the affected Mandalay and Sagaing regions.
The official number of casualties took hours to trickle in, with the full extent of death, injury and destruction still not yet known. Information is tightly controlled in Myanmar, where the government has been embroiled in civil war after a coup in 2021.
AFP reported that the ruling miltary junta made a rare request for international humanitarian aid, leaving aid agencies scrambling to assess the humanitarian needs and work out how to reach the country, which is isolated from the outside world.
In the Saigaing region, a 90-year old bridge collapsed as sections of the highway connecting Mandalay to Yangon were damaged. In the capital Naypyitaw, religious shrines were also damaged, with parts toppling to the ground.
The quake caused alarms to go off in buildings across Bangkok, and thousands of residents ran down the staircases of high-rise apartments and hotels onto the street. Videos on social media showed people gathering in the streets of the Thai capital.
The tremors were forceful enough to send water sloshing out of pools, some high up in high-rises, as the tremor shook.
Paul Vincent, a tourist visiting from England, was at a streetside bar when the quake struck.
“When I saw the building, oh my God, that’s when ... it hit me,” he said. “There was people crying in the streets and, you know, the panic was horrendous really.”
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra warned Bangkok residents to remain calm as the city prepared an emergency response.
“I’d like to ask everyone to stay calm and do not panic, but please be careful,” Shinawatra said, warning that there could be possible aftershocks.
More than 17 million people live in the greater Bangkok area, many of whom are in high-rise apartments.
