A powerful earthquake in Myanmar and its aftershocks reverberating through Thailand have left at least 154 people dead and scores more injured or missing, with authorities warning the toll is expected to rise. The magnitude 7.7 quake struck central Myanmar around midday local time on March 28, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, with its epicenter near Mandalay. A significant aftershock of magnitude 6.4 followed minutes later.
Myanmar’s ruling military administration, which declared a state of emergency across six regions including the capital Naypyidaw, reported at least 144 fatalities and more than 700 injuries. Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing appealed for international aid, citing the scale of destruction and the limited capacity of the country’s health infrastructure. Hospitals in Naypyidaw were overwhelmed, with one of the city’s main facilities sustaining serious damage.
Emergency services set up triage areas outdoors as injured residents streamed in. Images from the capital showed widespread structural damage, including government housing units, roads, and bridges. Authorities highlighted an urgent need for blood donations and medical supplies in affected areas, where access remains limited due to ongoing civil conflict. In Thailand, the impact was most severe in Bangkok, where a 33-story skyscraper under construction collapsed, killing at least 10 people and injuring 16.
City officials said 101 people were unaccounted for across multiple sites. The building was a project of China Railway Construction Corporation for the Office of the Auditor General of Thailand. Thousands of residents evacuated high-rise buildings in the capital as tremors were felt citywide. Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation confirmed the quake was felt in most parts of the country.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra convened an emergency meeting to assess the response. Public transit was suspended and trading was temporarily halted on the stock exchange. Seismologists attribute the devastation to the Sagaing Fault, a major strike-slip fault line running through Myanmar. Earthquake researchers say the fault released energy equivalent to several hundred nuclear explosions, with surface-level shaking measured as “violent” near the epicenter.
Experts at the German Research Centre for Geosciences and universities studying the event noted that the shallow depth and poor regional building standards exacerbated the destruction. The disaster compounds Myanmar’s ongoing humanitarian crisis, as the country continues to grapple with civil war following the 2021 military coup. With infrastructure already strained and large portions of the population displaced, relief operations are expected to face significant logistical hurdles, further complicated by the risk of strong aftershocks in the coming weeks. – By MENA Newswire News Desk.
