At least 144 killed in Myanmar after earthquake – as 100 missing in Bangkok skyscraper collapse
At least 144 people have been killed and 730 others injured in Myanmar following a powerful earthquake, according to the head of the country’s military government.
“The death toll and injuries are expected to rise,” Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said on television.
The 7.7 magnitude quake struck around midday local time at a shallow depth of six miles, with the epicentre about 10 miles from the second city of Mandalay. There were also aftershocks, with one measuring a strong 6.4 magnitude 12 minutes later.
Neighbouring Thailand was also rocked by the earthquake, with nine people killed in the capital Bangkok, including eight who died after a skyscraper, which had been under construction, collapsed.
Follow live: Myanmar earthquake latest
Rescuers searching through the rubble of the tower block for survivors have said more than 100 people were missing.
Footage showed the high-rise in the Chatuchak area crashing to the ground as people ran away from the scene.
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Bangkok declared a disaster area
In Myanmar, buildings in five cities and towns collapsed, along with a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway, state media reported.
Images showed the destroyed Ava Bridge over the Irrawaddy River, with its arches leaning into the water.
Rescue workers at the scene of the collapsed building in Bangkok. Pic: AP
Pic: Reuters
A rescue worker from the Moe Saydanar charity group said it had retrieved at least 60 bodies from monasteries and buildings in Pyinmanar, near the capital Naypyidaw, and more people were trapped.
‘Building collapsed in front of my eyes’
“We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking,” a Mandalay resident said.
“I witnessed a five-storey building collapse in front of my eyes. Everyone in my town is out on the road and no one dares to go back inside buildings.”
A temple in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, after the quake
A crumbled temple in Naypyidaw
Another Mandalay resident said destruction stretched across the whole city, and one neighbourhood, Sein Pan, was on fire.
Roads were damaged, phone lines disrupted and there was no electricity, they said.
Other eyewitnesses said three people died while praying when a mosque partially collapsed in the Bago Region. Images have also emerged of a destroyed temple in Naypyidaw.
Meanwhile, local media has reported that at least two people died and 20 were injured after a hotel collapsed in Aung Ben.
Civil war in Myanmar
The natural disaster comes as the country is in the grip of a civil war.
The ruling military junta said a state of emergency has been declared in Sagaing Region, Mandalay Region, Magway Region and northeastern Shan State, Nay Pyi Taw Council Area, and Bago Region.
The junta added in a statement: “The government has ordered a rapid investigation of the damage in these areas, We will carry out relief and relief operations promptly. We will also work to provide necessary disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.”
Read more:
Eyewitnesses describe earthquake hitting Myanmar and Bangkok
The Red Cross has said downed power lines are adding to challenges for their teams trying to reach Mandalay and Sagaing regions and southern Shan state.
The largest earthquake in this region in nearly 80 years
The world’s highest mountain range – the Himalayas – is testament to the power of plate tectonics.
Forced upwards by the gradual northward push of the Indian plate into the Eurasian plate.
It’s a power that’s almost impossible to imagine until just a tiny fraction of it is suddenly released.
And that’s what happened just six miles beneath the feet of 1.2 million people living in the city Mandalay and surrounding settlements.
A fault line along that Indian-Eurasian plate boundary runs almost directly beneath the city.
Over decades, as the plates grind past each other, tension builds up in the subsurface rock. When it finally gives, an earthquake is the result.
Such strike-slip faults as they’re known don’t generate the world’s most powerful earthquakes. That dubious honour goes to subduction zones in places like Sumatra and Japan that generate the magnitude 9 earthquakes that caused the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 or the Tohoku tsunami of 2011.
A magnitude 7.7 quake is still extremely powerful and destructive if it occurs shallow in the Earth’s crust and close to population centres. This did both.
Recent history has an important role to play too. Large earthquakes in this region happen every decade or so. But the last one of this size in the Sagaing region was in 1946.
That pre-dates the development of modern earthquake building codes. Reconstruction in Mandalay and beyond after that event will have resulted in buildings vulnerable to collapse from shaking of this magnitude and possibly already weakened by previous events.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people poured out of buildings in Bangkok after the tremors, with many buildings evacuated.
The city is home to 17 million people and many live in high-rise apartments.
Alarms went off in buildings as the earthquake hit around 1.30pm local time (6.30am UK time).
Footage on social media has shown water being thrown down the side of buildings from rooftop swimming pools.
All flights in and out of Bangkok are operating normally following the earthquake, the country’s civil aviation department said on Friday.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been barred from running for public office for five years – derailing her bid to run in the next presidential election.
The National Rally leader, who left court before the verdict was read out, was found guilty in an embezzlement case.
She was also given a four-year jail sentence, with two years suspended. She is not expected to serve any jail time.
Le Pen, 56, who also received a €100,000 (£83,635) fine, is a three-time presidential contender who had said the next election in 2027 would be her final run for top office.
The ban, which comes into force immediately, ends those hopes unless she successfully appeals before the campaign.
Le Pen and 24 other National Rally officials were accused of diverting more than €3m (£2.51m) of European Parliament funds to pay France-based staff working for her party between 2004 and 2016.
The judge also handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of Le Pen’s party who, like her, previously served as MEPs in the European Parliament.
Another 12 people who served as parliamentary aides for Le Pen and what is now the National Rally party, formerly the National Front, were also handed guilty verdicts.
The ruling described the embezzlement as “a democratic bypass” that deceived the parliament and voters.
Pic: Reuters
Sitting in the front row in the court in Paris, Le Pen showed no immediate reaction as the chief judge read the verdict.
Judge Benedicte de Perthuis ruled: “It was established that all these people were actually working for the party, that their (EU) lawmaker had not given them any tasks.
“The investigations also showed that these were not administrative errors … but embezzlement within the framework of a system put in place to reduce the party’s costs.”
Le Pen leaves the court before being driven away. Pic: Reuters
Le Pen left the court before the completion of the verdict and sentencing and did not address the media outside before being driven away in a car.
She had denied accusations she was at the head of “a system” meant to siphon off EU funds to benefit her party.
Hearings revealed how some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard – who was once her father’s bodyguard – as well as for her personal assistant.
The defendants denied any wrongdoing and claimed the money was used legitimately.
The nine-week trial took place at the end of last year.
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World
First orbital rocket launched from Europe crashes into sea – but company says test ‘met all expectations’
The first orbital rocket launched from mainland Europe took off from Norway on Sunday – but crashed into the sea and exploded 40 seconds later.
The unmanned Spectrum rocket blasted off from the Arctic Andoeya Spaceport, on Sunday at 12.30pm local time before it was terminated less than a minute later.
Isar Aerospace, the German company that built the rocket, had warned that the launch could end prematurely. It maintained that despite being short, the flight had produced extensive data that its team could learn from.
“Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success,” Daniel Metzler, Isar’s chief executive and co-founder, said.
Isar Aerospace test rocket Spectrum lifts off for a test flight. Pic: Isar Aerospace via AP
“We had a clean lift-off, 30 seconds of flight and even got to validate our flight termination system.”
Spectrum is a two-stage launch vehicle specifically designed to put small and medium satellites into orbit.
Its maiden voyage was aimed at kickstarting satellite launches from Europe.
Several European nations, including the UK and Sweden, have said they want to be an active player in the growing market of commercial space missions.
The flight was terminated after 40 seconds. Pic: Isar Aerospace via AP
Big global companies already ahead in the satellite launch game include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which launches from the US, and French company ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus and Safran that uses a spaceport in South America’s French Guiana.
Mr Musk’s SpaceX also operates the Starlink satellite service, a communications network that can provide much of the globe with access to the internet.
Isar said the flight was a success despite it crashing into the sea. Pic: Isar Aerospace via AP
Germany’s BDLI aerospace industries association said Isar’s first flight would lead to further progress.
BDLI managing director, Marie-Christine von Hahn, said: “Europe urgently needs to ensure its sovereignty in space. Elon Musk’s Starlink is not without alternatives – nor should it be.”
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Sweden, with its Esrange launch site, and Britain with its SaxaVord Spaceport in the Scottish Shetland Islands, are the nearest rivals to the Norwegian site, all of which aim to give Europe greater autonomy in space flights.
SaxaVord, which suffered a setback when a rocket engine exploded during a test last year, is planning its first satellite launch later this year.
World
British explorer Camilla Hempleman-Adams becomes first woman to complete solo traverse of Baffin Island
A British explorer has become the first woman to complete a solo traverse of Canada’s Baffin Island.
Camilla Hempleman-Adams, 32, pulled a sledge 150 miles in temperatures as low as -40C and winds as high as 47mph.
She finished the trek from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung in 13 days – a day ahead of schedule.
The Briton completed the challenge a day faster than expected. Pic: PA
The largely uninhabited Arctic island is the fifth largest in the world and is in far northwest Canada – between the mainland and Greenland.
Speaking from the Inuit hamlet of Pangnirtung, Ms Hempleman-Adams said: “I’m feeling pretty exhausted, I have very sore feet, but it’s nice to be back in civilisation, just slowly settling back in.
“It’s been a really tough two weeks, but an incredible two weeks.”
“When you go in by yourself, you just have a mindset to keep going,” she said.
“You adapt, you have the mindset that you can’t give up. There is no giving up in those conditions.”
She admitted she had been looking forward to a hot shower.
Ms Hempleman-Adams was met at the finish line by her father. Pic: PA
Her father, adventurer Sir David Hempleman-Adams, flew out to meet her at the finish line.
He said he’d been “really, really worried” due to the strong winds – which increase the chance of frostbite.
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“Being solo, you’ve got to be really on top of your game the whole time. If you just lose concentration for five minutes, it’s a real problem,” he said.
Sir David added: “It’s a fantastic advertisement for females. I mean, we are big, ugly and strong, but she’s half my weight and did it twice as fast as I did.”
Ms Hempleman-Adams also became the youngest British female to ski to the North Pole when she was just 15.
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