At least 144 people are now known to have died, and more than 700 are injured after a powerful earthquake struck central Myanmar, with strong tremors extending into neighboring Thailand and southwest China. The number of dead is expected to rise significantly. The 7.7-magnitude quake struck a little after 1:00 p.m. local time, with the epicenter near Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay. Then, just a few minutes later, another less powerful tremor hit. A state of emergency has now been declared across large parts of the country. The shock waves were felt hundreds of miles away in Bangkok, where more than 80 construction workers are missing after an unfinished high-rise building collapsed. Myanmar is under the control of a military regime that has restricted access to websites and social media. That, along with power lines being brought down, makes it difficult to get information out of the country. We will have the latest from there in a moment, but first, to Nick Marsh, who is live in Bangkok.
The Impact in Thailand
Nick: Yeah, Clive. You can see the sheer scale of the devastation here. It's getting pretty late in Bangkok now, but rescue workers have been here for hours, battling through the debris, desperately looking for any sign of survivors. The latest figures we have been given are six fatalities, but more than 100 people are still missing. For those people, just a few hours ago, it was a normal Friday afternoon at work. That was until, of course, the earthquake struck 800 miles away.
After the shock, it took just moments for tragedy to hit Thailand. This was years of work destroyed in seconds. More than 400 people were at this construction site when it suddenly collapsed. There was panic as workers ran for their lives. People nearby fled the scene. Matthew Martin, who was working in a nearby building, saw the moment that the tower block collapsed.
Matthew: First, our building started shaking. I looked outside and started taking a video after maybe 30 seconds. I could see the street lights swaying on the road. Everybody stopped on the expressway. Then, by the time I panned back, I could see this building had collapsed, and the dust and debris were rising in the air. It was pretty surreal.
Dozens may be trapped in the debris. Just how many have lost their lives is still unclear. The force was so strong that patients in a nearby hospital had to be evacuated. Doctors and nurses tried to treat them in a safe zone outside, where one woman gave birth. Even 800 miles from the epicenter, people abandoned their offices for the safety of the street.
Local Resident: At first, I thought my head was spinning. So, I moved to see what was happening, and things started swaying even more. I quickly ran to my kids. I told them, "We can't stay here. We have to get out of here." So, we ran down to get outside.
Others who stayed inside couldn't believe what they saw, including water spilling from infinity pools high above.
Office Worker: I was in the office, and people started running out. I thought for a split second, "Isn't it better to stay inside? Isn't that safer?" So, that's what I did. Then, I saw the other building and started filming. The pool was overflowing—like a waterfall.
Tonight, the Thai prime minister visited the site of the collapsed building. It was supposed to be a new government departmental headquarters. Today, it became a disaster zone. Rescue workers have a long night ahead of them, battling through the debris, just trying to find anyone who might be alive. Their priority is to find as many survivors as possible. But for those who saw this building collapse, and for those who are here now, the feeling is a mixture of shock at what happened and dread at what they might find. For the Thai people, it's a chilling hint of what their neighbors in Myanmar must have felt and must be going through right now.
The Devastation in Myanmar
The epicenter of the earthquake was in central Myanmar, and the number of dead is expected to rise. As mentioned, information is tightly restricted by the ruling military regime, and international journalists are rarely granted access to report from the country. Caroline Holly, working with the BBC's Burmese service and BBC Verify, takes a look now at the impact of the disaster in Myanmar. A warning: there are some distressing images in her report.
Buddhist monks cower, caught between collapsing buildings. On the tarmac at Mandalay International Airport, a plane swings away from the force of the earthquake. Terrified passengers don't know what to do before they are directed to move further away from the building.
In Myanmar's second-largest city, there is panic on the streets. Mandalay, just 10 miles from the epicenter, is home to one and a half million people. Buildings are dangerously disfigured and have collapsed after the earth moved beneath them. A woman is trapped with her baby boy. Her legs are caught under rubble on the ground floor of a damaged building in the capital, Naypyidaw. A painstaking effort is underway to get her free.
The real scale of the disaster is still unknown, but hospitals are inundated with the injured. They arrive not by ambulance, but in whatever transport they can find, treated on the street in the heat due to fear of aftershocks. So many are wounded that the authorities have appealed to the public to donate blood.
Local Resident: While I was doing housework, I felt shaking. It was very strong. I was afraid the building would collapse, and as I went outside, I was hit by a falling cabinet.
A high-level visit to the hospital by the internationally isolated military junta follows. The needs are so great that the government has made a rare appeal for outside help.
Government Spokesman: We want the international community to give humanitarian aid as soon as possible.
The destruction has been indiscriminate. Cultural landmarks, including pagodas in Mandalay, have collapsed. Many areas are cut off due to cracked roads and downed power and internet lines. Information from rebel-held areas, already affected by conflict, is harder to obtain.
The earthquake was felt hundreds of miles away in southwest China, further demonstrating its ferocity and the fear it caused.
The Science Behind the Quake
The aid effort in Myanmar will be complicated. Regardless of religion or politics, the hope is that the help now being mobilized by the UN will be allowed to reach everyone. Tonight, a rescue worker in Mandalay told the BBC that many people remain under the rubble, and with little equipment, they are digging for survivors with their bare hands.
Palab Ghosh: These images show the damage caused by the earthquake. The region is one of the most seismically active in the world. But this latest shock was one of the most powerful in the area for a century.
This was a very large earthquake, capable of causing extreme damage close to the epicenter. The Earth's crust is made up of plates that rub against each other. They can slip and suddenly release their energy, which is what happened on this fault line outside the city of Mandalay. The power of an earthquake is measured by the moment magnitude scale, which goes from 1 to 10. Each whole number is 10 times more powerful than the previous one. At 7.7, this was a very intense shock, followed by a smaller aftershock of 6.4 and several others. More are likely in the coming days and weeks, but they will be smaller and less frequent.
The concern is that the earthquake and aftershocks were relatively shallow, less than six miles deep, increasing the impact on the populated area above.
The question is whether we can predict when and where these earthquakes will happen. Unfortunately, the answer is no. Clive.
Clive: Okay, Palab. Thank you. Let's return to Nick Marsh in Bangkok. Nick, truly awful scenes from the region. The number of dead is likely to rise significantly.
Nick: Yeah, Clive. Rescue workers have been here for hours. People are bracing for the worst. Many Burmese workers here have families back home, now dealing with devastation in both countries.
Source: BBC News. (2025, March 28). Hunt for survivors as Myanmar earthquake kills dozens | BBC News [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUMT0aB3cbM