On Friday, powerful earthquakes hit the continent in Southeast Asia with a dreaded arrow balance while the buildings collapsed near his epicenter in Myanmar and as far as Bangkok. Shock tremors have also been felt in Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Laos and China.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the GFZ Helmholtz Center for Geosciences in Germany measured the first earthquake at 7.7, with its epicenter recorded 16 km north-northwest of sagaing at 1:20 p.m. local time at a depth of 10 km.
While the first victim reports began to emerge, Usgs estimated A probability of 35% that the number of deaths was between 1,000 and 10,000 people, adding earthquakes in this area caused secondary risks such as landslides that risked new losses.
“Overall, the population of this region lies in structures vulnerable to earthquakes, although there are resistant structures. The types of predominant vulnerable buildings are a masonry construction in informal and uninformed brick,” he said in a preliminary assessment.
The USGS estimated an equal probability of 35% that economic losses would reach $ 10 billion, with a probability of 29% that this could amount to $ 100 billion, or about a third of Myanmar GDP.
The earthquake has also been recorded in neighboring countries. A second earthquake of magnitude 6.4 followed 12 minutes later in the Sagaing-Mandalay region in southeast Myanmar.
The online media were overwhelmed by images from across the country revealing the extent of devastation while scores, perhaps hundreds of buildings – including pagodas and mosques – have collapsed, sending plumes of dust in the sky. Mandalay has 1.2 million inhabitants.
In Thailand, the several floors were sworn while the roof swimming pools threw water on the sides.
A skyscraper under construction, with a crane on the top, near the popular Chatchak de Bangkok market has plummeted. At least one person was killed and dozens of others were trapped under the rubble because thousands of others have been evacuated from neighboring towers.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra qualified an emergency meeting and said Bangkok a catastrophic area after evaluating the impact of the earthquake, but Myanmar information is notoriously difficult to obtain due to the current civil war.
The head of the Junta of Myanmar, General Minh Aung Hlaing, has not published details on damage, but he declared the state of emergency in six regions and makes a rare request for international humanitarian aid.
According to reports, the roof of Mandalay International Airport had collapsed, debris scattered across the terminal. The online shared videos showed hundreds of travelers who presented themselves for the safety of the Tarmac.
At least 20 people are said to have died while worship in a mosque. Paul Greening, a military analyst based near the border town of Myanmar of Myawaddy, told the diplomat: “It’s Friday and Ramadan – there will probably be more mosques dead.”
A “mass victim zone” was declared in the capital of Naycyidaw approximately a hospital with a thousand beds, which was flooded with seriously injured people. Minh Aung Hlaing would have inspected the site.
Another source added: “I hear Mandalay is completely flattened.”
A source with the anti-regime forces in Myawaddy added that his house was a mess after the refrigerator and the freezer “rebounded in the house like tennis balls out of concrete”.
“I know at least a monastery that has also collapsed and there are many skyscrapers and large buildings that fall.
Major earthquakes are not uncommon in Myanmar.
The Mandalay-Sagaing area is part of the alpid belt and the sagaing flaw is one of the largest sources of earthquakes in Myanmar. An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 at a depth of 107.72 km and about 92 km northeast of Sagaing was measured by the USGS on March 18.