By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MANDALAY/BANGKOK (Worthy News) – The death toll of an earthquake that turned even skyscrapers into rubble in Myanmar and Thailand was rapidly rising Thursday, with officials saying more than 150 people were killed and 700 injured.
The figure was believed to rise further as search teams struggled to find survivors, including in Bangkok, the multi-million Thai capital, where a skyscraper under construction collapsed.
The 7.7-magnitude quake, with an epicenter near Mandalay, Myanmar‘s second-largest city, struck at midday and was followed by a strong 6.4-magnitude aftershock.
The full extent of death, injury, and destruction was not immediately apparent — particularly in Myanmar, one of the world’s poorest countries.
It is embroiled in a civil war, which has also impacted minority Christians, and information is tightly controlled.
According to footage monitored by Worthy News, a monastery and temples were among the many destroyed buildings, including those in the capital, Naypyidaw.
Additionally, cracks appeared in roads in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, and pieces of ceilings fell from buildings, witnesses said.
MORE VICTIMS
Numerous people were killed after a building collapse in Pyi Gyi Tagon township of Mandalay, according to eyewitnesses.
The head of Myanmar’s military government said in a televised speech on Friday evening that at least 144 people were killed and 730 others were injured in the quake. The death toll and injuries are expected to rise,” Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said.
Thailand also reported multiple deaths as
as search teams struggled to find survivors, including in Bangkok, where at least dozens were still feared beneath the rubble of the collapsed skyscraper.
Footage obtained by Worthy News showed panicked, stricken people running for their lives when the skyscraper came down.
In comments seen by Worthy News, a former reporter of Britain’s The Guardian newspaper and current Muay Thai fighter said she could narrowly escape the carnage in Bangkok. Elena Cresci explained that she was on the 28th floor of her building near Chatuchak Park in Bangkok when she felt the earthquake today.
“I was cooking some food, and I went to get something. I thought I was really light-headed from not having eaten – everything was swaying – then I realized it was the building. I ran, grabbing my bag with my wallet, phone, and keys. Everyone was running out of the building.”
She added that she “ran down the stairs from the 28th floor, and the whole building was shaking. You could see plaster falling down. People were shouting ‘hurry, hurry’ in Thai.”
RUNNING DOWN
The woman recalled she did not know “how long it took for me to run down from the 28th floor, but by the time I got to the bottom, it [the building] had stopped shaking. I could see the cracks in the wall, and that was pretty scary. We crossed the road and looked up at the building, not sure what was going to happen … people were pretty panicked.”
Speaking from a nearby cafe where she had taken shelter, Cresci said she had not yet returned home. “I’m just building up the courage to [go back],” she said, adding that she would not feel comfortable sleeping there tonight.
With people still in shock, Pope Francis offered his prayers for the victims of the powerful earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand while the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered an “emergency response” following the disaster that killed more than 150 people.
Francis, the pontiff of over 1 billion Catholics, said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of life and widespread devastation” caused by the earthquake. The 88-year-old spoke while recovering at home after five weeks in the hospital with life-threatening double pneumonia.
While he prayed, the WHO readied medical supplies for the “huge” Myanmar earthquake.
The WHO said it had triggered its emergency management system in response to Friday’s “huge” earthquake in Myanmar and was mobilizing its logistics hub in Dubai to prepare trauma injury supplies.
The WHO is coordinating its earthquake response from its Geneva headquarters “because we see this as a huge event” with “clearly a very, very big threat to life and health,” spokesperson Margaret Harris told a media briefing. Harris said that due to recent experience with the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes, “we know very well what you need to send in first.”
US ROLE
However, it was unclear whether the United States, which withdrew from the WHO, would be involved in rescue operations.
Sources said the world-renowned program for international disaster and crisis assistance can no longer be deployed after U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s administration began dismantling the USAID agency.
The Disaster Assistance Response Teams, or DARTs, involve highly trained staff who specialize in mobilizing within 24 to 48 hours of a disaster to lead the US government’s humanitarian response on the ground.
DARTs have deployed in the worst emergencies in recent history, including the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that killed 300,000 people, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, and wars in Iraq and Syria.
As a result of Trump’s funding freeze for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the four DARTs currently in operation in Afghanistan, Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine can no longer function normally, according to seven current USAID employees who spoke to Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.
There was no immediate response from the Trump administration, but his adviser, Elon Musk, said earlier that concrete aid projects, such as tackling diseases, have been restored.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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