BANGKOK, March 29 — A powerful earthquake killed more than 140 people in Myanmar on Friday, authorities said, toppling buildings and wrecking infrastructure across a wide area, including a skyscraper under construction in neighbouring Thailand.

Much of the devastation was in Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay, which lies close to the epicentre of the 7.7 magnitude quake that struck at lunchtime and was followed by a powerful aftershock and several more moderate ones.

A rescue worker from Amarapura, an ancient city and now a township of Mandalay, said the bodies of 30 people had been recovered from collapsed multi-story apartment blocks.

“I have never experienced anything like this before — our town looks like a collapsed city,” he said, estimating that about a fifth of the buildings had been destroyed.

“We received calls for help from people from the inside, but we cannot help because we do not have enough manpower and machines to remove the debris, but we will not stop working”.

General Min Aung Hlaing, leader of Myanmar’s military junta, said there would be more deaths and casualties and invited “any country” to provide help and donations.

Speaking at the White House later on Friday, US President Donald Trump said he had spoken with officials in Myanmar and that his administration would be providing some form of assistance. “We’re going to be helping,” he told reporters.

Despite the administration’s push to shut the US Agency for International Development and cut nearly all remaining jobs, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said USAID disaster experts were ready to help, including with items such as food and potable water.

“USAID has maintained a team of disaster experts with the capacity to respond if disaster strikes,” she told a press briefing. “We are ready to move now. There has been no impact on our ability to perform those duties, those requests for aid, if and when they come in.”

In the Thai capital Bangkok, an official said at least nine people had been killed. Rescuers were searching through the rubble of the tower block that collapsed.

Mandalay, with a population of about 1.5 million, is Myanmar’s ancient royal capital and the centre of its Buddhist heartland. Rescue workers were trying to reach dozens of monks trapped under rubble in the Phaya Taung Monastery, said the emergency worker in Amarapura. Buildings, bridges and roads were wrecked, residents and local media said.

State-run MRTV said at least 144 people had been killed in Myanmar and 732 injured.

The junta is locked in a struggle to put down insurgents fighting its rule, a situation that is likely to complicate the rescue and relief operation.

“We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking,” a Mandalay resident told Reuters. “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.”

A rescue worker from the Moe Saydanar charity told Reuters it had retrieved at least 60 bodies from monasteries and buildings in Pyinmana, near the capital Naypyidaw, and more people were trapped.

In the purpose-built capital itself, a 1,000-bed hospital sustained damage and roads were left with huge fissures, state media reported.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations was mobilising in Southeast Asia to help those in need.

Zin Mar Aung, the diplomatic spokesperson for the opposition National Unity Government, said fighters from the anti-junta militias known as the People’s Defence Forces would provide humanitarian help.

A US government analysis based on the strength and depth of the quake estimated there could be thousands of deaths and severe economic loss, with the Sagaing and Meiktila regions worst hit.

State media said the quake caused the collapse of buildings in five cities and towns, as well as a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway. Images showed the destroyed Ava Bridge over the Irrawaddy River, its arches leaning into the water.

A 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, said the resident, who declined to be named.

At least three people died after a mosque in Taungoo partially collapsed, two witnesses said.

“We were saying prayers when the shaking started... Three died on the spot,” one said.

Local media reported a hotel in Aung Ban, in Shan state, crumbled into rubble, with the Democratic Voice of Burma reporting two people had died and 20 were trapped.

Worst time

Amnesty International said the earthquake could not have come at a worse time for Myanmar, given the number of displaced people, the existing need for relief aid, and cuts to US aid by the Trump administration.

Restricted media access meant a clear picture of the extent of damage and loss might not emerge for some time, the group’s Myanmar researcher, Joe Freeman, said.

Since overthrowing the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run Myanmar, leaving the economy and basic services including healthcare in tatters.

An armed opposition, comprising established ethnic armies and new resistance groups formed since the coup, has seized swathes of territory and driven the junta out of border areas, increasingly hemming it into the central lowlands.

The fighting has displaced more than three million people in Myanmar, with widespread food insecurity and over a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, the UN says.

Myanmar has also been hit by natural disasters in recent years, and the internationally isolated junta has struggled to respond adequately. It lies on the boundary of two tectonic plates and is among the world’s most seismically active countries.

Nyi Nyi Kyaw, a Myanmar academic at the University of Bristol, said Myanmar was “wholly unable to deal with the shock and its aftermath” due to the breakdown in civil society.

In Bangkok, people ran onto the streets in panic, among them hotel guests in bathrobes and swimming costumes, as water cascaded down from an elevated pool at a luxury hotel.

Of the confirmed casualties in the Thai capital, eight died in the building collapse and a ninth at another location, Bangkok Deputy Governor Tavida Kamolvej said. The rescue operation at the building site said over 100 people were missing. — Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — The Malaysian embassy in Bangkok has been temporarily sealed as authorities conduct a safety assessment following strong earthquakes in Myanmar that caused tremors in Thailand yesterday.

In a statement, Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry (Wisma Putra) has advised Malaysians to avoid the embassy, located at Kronos Office Tower, until further notice.

Instead, in the event of emergencies or aftershocks, they should gather at the Embassy Complex near Sathorn Garden.

The precaution follows two powerful earthquakes that struck Myanmar yesterday.

The first, a 7.7-magnitude quake, hit the Sagaing Region in northwest Myanmar around 1pm local time, followed by a second tremor measuring 6.4 in magnitude.

Tremors from the earthquakes were reportedly felt in several locations including Penang.

Wisma Putra has urged Malaysians in Myanmar and Thailand to stay alert, follow updates from local authorities, and take necessary safety measures.

The ministry, through its embassies in Yangon and Bangkok, added that it is monitoring the situation closely.

In Myanmar, a state of emergency has been declared in the Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway, and Bago regions, as well as in eastern Shan State and the capital Naypyidaw.

In Thailand, public transport services, including the MRT, BTS, and the airport rail link in Bangkok, were temporarily suspended as authorities evaluated infrastructure safety.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has declared a state of emergency in Bangkok.

Preliminary reports indicate that no Malaysians have been injured in the affected areas.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim expressed Malaysia’s readiness to assist in humanitarian efforts, acknowledging the disaster declarations in Myanmar and Bangkok.

In a social media statement, he extended Malaysia’s support to those affected and conveyed hopes for a swift recovery.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Friday vowed the United States would assist Myanmar after it was hit by a huge earthquake, following a rare plea for aid by the South-East Asian nation's ruling junta.

"It's terrible," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about the quake when asked if he would respond to the appeal by Myanmar's military rulers.

The huge 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds.

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing had earlier invited "any country, any organization" to help with relief, in a speech aired on state media.

Four years of civil war sparked by the military seizing power have ravaged Myanmar's infrastructure and health care system, leaving it ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster.

The US has in recent years been pressing Myanmar's rulers for progress on key concerns such as freeing political prisoners and reducing violence.

Myanmar's junta has meanwhile been fostering ties with key ally Russia, with leader Min Aung Hlaing visiting President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this month.

The two countries are talking about a plan for Moscow to help build a small nuclear power plant in Myanmar. - AFP

Berlin: Myanmar perlu bersiap sedia menghadapi kemungkinan gempa susulan selepas gempa bumi kuat melanda negara itu pada Jumaat, menurut seorang ahli geofizik Jerman kepada agensi berita Jerman (dpa).

"Kami menjangkakan gempa susulan akan berlaku. Ini adalah proses yang biasa," kata Oliver Heidbach dari Pusat Geosains GFZ Helmholtz di Potsdam, timur Jerman.

Saintis GFZ berkata beberapa gempa susulan dengan magnitud antara 6 dan 6.5 boleh berlaku dalam tempoh beberapa jam atau hari akan datang, dengan jumlah dan kekuatan gegaran dijangka berkurangan dari semasa ke semasa.

Bagaimanapun, mereka tidak menolak kemungkinan berlakunya satu lagi gempa bumi kuat.

Heidbach memberi amaran gelombang seismik yang dihasilkan oleh gempa susulan berpotensi merosakkan lagi bangunan yang sudah terjejas, sekali gus menyukarkan dan membahayakan usaha menyelamat.

Heidbach menjelaskan bahawa pusat gempa pertama terletak pada garis sesar yang menyerap pergerakan plat tektonik India, yang merentasi khatulistiwa.

Beliau berkata kawasan itu dilanda gempa bumi kuat kira-kira setiap 100 tahun.

Namun, masih terlalu awal untuk menilai sepenuhnya kesan gempa bumi itu, katanya.

Sementara itu, Konsulat Jeneral China di Chiang Mai, Thailand pada Jumaat menasihatkan warga China di negara itu agar berwaspada terhadap kemungkinan gempa susulan selepas gempa bumi kuat melanda Myanmar, lapor Xinhua.

Konsulat Jeneral China dalam satu kenyataan memaklumkan gempa bumi kuat telah melanda Myanmar awal hari ini, dengan gegaran ketara dirasai di utara Thailand, termasuk wilayah Chiang Mai dan Mae Hong Son.

Beberapa tarikan pelancongan di Daerah Pai, Mae Hong Son dilaporkan runtuh akibat gempa itu, katanya.

Sehubungan itu, Konsulat Jeneral China menggesa warga China di Thailand agar sentiasa mengikuti maklumat amaran awal rasmi yang dikeluarkan oleh pihak berkuasa Thailand serta mengelakkan berada di tingkat bangunan lebih tinggi.