More than 150 dead in Myanmar and Thailand after a huge earthquake

A huge earthquake of magnitude 7.7 has reached the center of Myanmar, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

At least 144 people died and 732 have been injured so far in the country, said Militaire of Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing.

The epicenter was 16 km (10 miles) northwest of the city of Sagaing, sending strong tremors that felt in the southwest of China and Thailand.

Meanwhile, a hundred construction workers are missing after an unfinished high-rise building collapsed hundreds of kilometers in Bangkok, according to Thai Deputy Prime Minister.

At least seven people died on the site in Thailand, according to the Metropolitan administration of Bangkok.

A rescuer in Mandalay, the second largest city in Myanmar, told the BBC that the damage was “huge”.

The total number of people killed and injured by the earthquake is expected to increase in the coming days.

There have been reports on the roads unleashed in the capital not Pyi Taw, and the country’s military government has declared the state of emergency in six regions.

The earthquake struck near Mandalay, which has around 1.5 million inhabitants.

A second earthquake struck 12 minutes after the first, according to the USGS, with an amplitude of 6.4 and its epicenter was 18 km (11.1 miles) south of Sagaing.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, obtained the independence of Great Britain in 1948, but its recent history was marked by disorders and conflicts.

The soldiers took power in 2021, ten years after agreeing to submit control of a civil government. Since then, the Junta has attracted hard on dissent, performing militants of democracy and imprisoning journalists.

The state controls almost all the media of radio, television, written press and local online, and the use of the Internet is limited in the country, which often makes access to information difficult.

According to a recent BBC data project, the country is now controlled by a patchwork of groups, which makes it more difficult rescue and recovery efforts.

It is even more difficult to find precise information on what is happening in the areas held by the country’s rebels.

The junta made a rare appeal to international aid following the earthquake.

However, the complex situation on the ground is likely to interfere with research and rescue operations as well as the free movement of aid in the country.

The rescuers operating in villages near Mandalay told the BBC that they did not have access to the heavy machines necessary to reach people trapped under the rubble. “We dig people with our hands,” said a man.

The earthquake has added pressure to an already disastrous humanitarian situation in the country, where 3.5 million people have been moved by fighting.

The sagaing region, near the epicenter of the earthquake, is a volatile key battlefield in the civil war.

C charitable organizations and opposition parties working in the country have raised concerns about the “politicization” of aid in the coming days.

Montse Ferrer, assistant director of East Asia and Southeast and Pacific at Amnesty International, told the BBC that the junta had “a history of aid refusal” to the areas where the resistance forces are active.

The tremors felt hundreds of kilometers in the capital of Bangkok in Thailand, where the rescue teams worked overnight to release the construction workers trapped under the rubble.

City buildings have been evacuated, including a hospital with patients with acute need for medical care. A woman gave birth in the street in the middle of the bustle, lying on a stretcher surrounded by hospital staff.

Bui Thu, a BBC journalist who lives in Bangkok, the BBC World Service’s Newsday program was at home when the initial earthquake had occurred.

“I was very nervous, I was very panicked,” she said.

“Bangkok’s buildings are not designed for earthquakes, so I think that is why I think there will be big damage.”

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra visited the site of the collapsed building on Friday afternoon.

Research and rescue teams using drones, sniff dogs and diggers have been mobilized and disaster centers set up to help the rescue operation.

Additional report by the BBC Burmese