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.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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