Bangkok building collapse in a cloud of dust!

In Thailand, a 33-story building under construction crumpled into a cloud of dust near Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market, and onlookers could be seen screaming and running in a video posted on social media. Vehicles on a nearby freeway came to a stop.

Sirens across the Thai capital’s downtown as a rescuers streamed to the wreckage. Above them, shredded steel and broken concrete blocks, some stacked like pancakes, rose in a towering heap. Injured people were rushed away on gurneys, and hospital beds were also wheeled outside onto a sidewalk.

“It’s a great tragedy,” Deputy Prime Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said after viewing the site, adding that there was hope that there were still survivors.The city’s elevated rapid transit system and subway shut down.

While the area is prone to earthquakes, they are usually not so powerful and rarely are felt in the Thai capital. The greater metropolitan area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments. Voranoot Thirawat, a lawyer working in central Bangkok, said her first indication that something was wrong came when she saw a light swinging back and forth. Then she heard the building creaking, and she and her colleagues fled down 12 flights of stairs.

“In my lifetime, there was no earthquake like this in Bangkok,” she said. Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, was in one of Bangkok’s many malls when the quake struck. “All of a sudden, the whole building began to move. Immediately, there was screaming and a lot of panic,” he said. Some people fled down upward-moving escalators, he said. Nearby, Paul Vincent, a tourist visiting from England, recalled seeing a high-rise building swaying, water falling from a rooftop pool and people crying in the streets.

The U.S. Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to preliminary reports. Shallower earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

Bangkok Chatuchak

Quoted from APnews