London – An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 has shaken southeast Asia on Friday, according to the United States geological service.
USGS reports that the earthquake epicenter was in Mandalay, Myanmar, but at least three people died and another 68 were injured when a building that was under construction collapsed in Bangkok when the earthquake hit on Friday, according to the National Institute of Emergency Medicine of Thailand (Niem), which said there was an unknown number of people who still traced in the Cebobres.
The scope of the damage in Mandalay, the second largest city in Myanmar, is largely unknown this morning because it is under a very tight state control. However, it is believed that the damage could be extensive since this earthquake is stronger than many other historical earthquakes, including the Northridge earthquake that affected the area of Los Angeles de California on January 17, 1994, which is remembered as one of the most destructive and mortal in the history of California. Bangkok is approximately 600 miles away from Mandalay and suffered notable damage, as well as collapsed buildings.
A police officer shakes the ambulances when they reach a construction site where a building collapsed in Bangkok on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake. A powerful earthquake shook the center of Myanmar on March 28, on the Pandeo roads in the capital Naypyidaw, damaging buildings and forcing people to flee to the streets of neighboring Thailand.
Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP through Getty Images
Niem said there were approximately 320 construction workers on the site when the building in Bangkok collapsed 70 people, according to a statement published on social networks. Approximately 20 workers are still trapped in the elevator axis with the number of deaths expected to rise, Niem continued.
According to the reports, the alarms fired in the buildings of the Thai capital city when the earthquake hit around 1:30 pm, according to Associated Press.
People gather in a street after a strong earthquake hit Friday in the center of Myanmar, they said the earthquake monitoring services, which also affected Bangkok with hundreds of people who left the buildings in the Thai capital in panic after the tremors, in Bangkok, Thailand, March 28, 2025.
Athit Perowongmetha/Reuters
“We were under Sukhumvit’s main station and we thought that a train had crashed into the initial tremor,” a British citizen who is in the Thai capital in a business trip told ABC News and we want to remain in the anonymity of ABC News. “But then, as he continued, people began to run outside and the hotels were evacuated to the streets.”
The Royal Thai Police said they are helping to evacuate the people of the buildings throughout the city to safe areas, according to a statement published on social networks.
Rescue teams are seen in a construction site where a building collapsed in Bangkok on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake. A powerful earthquake shook the center of Myanmar on March 28, on the Pandeo roads in the capital Naypyidaw, damaging buildings and forcing people to flee to the streets of neighboring Thailand.
Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP through Getty Images
A video obtained by ABC News from a Wework office in Bangkok shows water that pours from a scourge pool while people crossed the office to the exits.
Two of the main public transport systems of Bangkok, the BTS, an elevated train line, and the MRT, which is mostly underground, have stopped the service as the authorities respond to the sequelae of the earthquake, said the Thai police.
Meanwhile, the Governing Board of Myanmar has declared an emergency state in six regions: Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway, the northeast state of Shan, Nay Pyi Taw and Bago, after the earthquake hit the country, followed by a series of replicas.
Myanmar is mired in years of the Civil War, and Mandalay is one of the main cities that the Board that still controls.
This is a development story. Consult the updates again.
Morgan Winsor, Joe Simonetti, Karson Yiu and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
