Buildings collapse as 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocks Myanmar and Thailand

Geoff Bennett:

In Southeast Asia today, a major earthquake rocked Myanmar and surrounding countries, collapsing multiple buildings and complicating rescue efforts. As of now, more than 140 people have reportedly been killed across three cities in Myanmar, and at least 10 in neighboring Thailand have died.

The epicenter of the 7.7-magnitude quake was near Myanmar's second largest city and was followed by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock.

Debi Edward of Independent Television News has the latest from Bangkok, Thailand.

Debi Edward:

The man filming shouted a warning, but it took just three seconds for the entire skyscraper to collapse. He kept recording as he and his co-workers fled in terror and were engulfed in dust.

Across Bangkok, people watched in horror as the building with a construction crane on top crumpled to the ground following a massive earthquake. A major rescue operation swung into action, with 90 people trapped in the mound of rubble and twisted metal. The epicenter was in neighboring Myanmar, where it struck during Friday prayers. This mosque caved in on the worshipers inside.

A group of monks, cowering outside the ruins of their temple, watched as another building nearby collapsed. At Mandalay Airport, passengers and staff crouched in fear on the tarmac as the tremors continued. In the Burmese capital, the general hospital was quickly overwhelmed, the sounds of heart monitors and screams of pain punctuating an air of chaos in a mass casualty area.

For the past four years, Myanmar has been gripped in a bloody civil war, and now nature has inflicted a disaster on its people. The country is largely cut off from the world and communications inside are restricted. So the scale of loss they are facing is still unknown.

Marie Manrique, Myanmar Program Coordinator, Red Cross:

We will know the scale of the damage as we move forward, but we can imagine, as our colleague already said, that the impact will be quite significant.

Debi Edward:

The quake hit at around 1:00 p.m. local time and was so powerful it reached the Thai capital hundreds of miles away, causing its many high-rise buildings to sway, some rooftop pools producing crashing waves like the ocean, while others created cascading waterfalls.

In a city not used to earthquakes, panic took hold and crowds fled for the safety of the outdoors. Hospital patients were evacuated onto a road, while a restaurant became a safe haven for these babies from a neonatal unit.

Shocks were felt across the entire region, including Southern China, where falling debris had people running for their lives. A state of emergency has been declared in Myanmar and in Thailand, where the prime minister visited the scene of the construction site collapse.

The specialist teams brought in for this complex search-and-rescue operation must be daunted by the task that faces them, the giant shards of concrete in which they hope to find signs of life.

Debi Edward, ITV News.