In Bangkok, Pornsak Seingsing desperately fled a collapsing high-rise building, the horrifying screams echoing behind him. He recalled hearing the cries of Burmese people during the escape, someone desperately shouting "Mama, Mama." He pessimistically believed that the person probably did not survive.
Read Also...:
A stroke survivor speaks again with the help of an experimental brain-computer implant
04-01, 2025
Arcade champion Billy Mitchell wins lawsuit against Queensland-based YouTube creator
04-01, 2025
Pope Francis shows slight improvement and resumes some work, Vatican says
04-01, 2025
Pope Francis back home after five-week hospital stay for life-threatening double pneumonia
04-01, 2025The 29-year-old worker is one of many anxious relatives and friends awaiting news. Since the earthquake struck around lunchtime on Friday, rescuers have been working tirelessly in the sweltering heat and humidity, searching for survivors buried under the ruins of steel, concrete, and glass. As night fell, the stifling heat of Bangkok did not abate, but the rescue operations continued intensely.
The over 30-story building under construction completely collapsed in the earthquake, sending clouds of dust and debris into the surrounding streets and trapping dozens of workers under the rubble. Pornsak said he was working on the fifth floor when the earthquake struck, and he was extremely frightened. He said the building began to bend, there was an explosion-like sound from the top, huge chunks of concrete fell, and people screamed. He believes he was the last person to escape from the fifth floor.
Pornsak worked as a welder on the construction site, which was originally planned to be the new office building for the Thai National Audit Office. On Saturday, he was still anxiously awaiting news of two friends, one Burmese and one Thai. He estimated that about 80% of the workers on the site were immigrants from neighboring Myanmar. Myanmar has been mired in a brutal civil war since 2021 and has now been devastated by an earthquake. Some Burmese workers said they had 16 relatives and friends missing, likely trapped under the rubble. A young Cambodian woman named Nur was also anxiously awaiting news of her 23-year-old brother, who she believed was working on the 26th floor at the time. She fought back tears and said she felt very distressed, and her mother had been crying because their family came to Thailand six years ago to seek better income.
The Bangkok local government said that approximately 10 deaths have been confirmed, at least 30 people have been injured, and about 80 people are missing. The extent of the disaster in Myanmar is still unfolding, and the death toll released by Myanmar's official media continues to climb, exceeding 1,600 late Saturday, with more than 3,400 injured. The epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake was near Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, with a depth of only 10 kilometers. There are deep concerns about Myanmar's ability to cope with the disaster. Aid organizations say the timing of the earthquake could not have been worse, as more than 3 million people in the country have already been displaced by the brutal civil war. The leader of Myanmar's military junta has made a rare appeal for international assistance, hoping that any country willing to help will extend a helping hand. An analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the total death toll could be as high as tens of thousands.
In Bangkok, the damage was limited to certain areas. The Chatuchak Weekend Market, just a few hundred meters from the collapsed building, remained open for business as usual, popular with tourists and locals alike. But near Kamphaeng Phet 2 Road, hundreds of rescuers, paramedics, volunteers, and other support personnel crowded the streets, which had been closed to all vehicles except emergency vehicles and trucks carrying excavators and other rescue equipment. Search and rescue dogs have been deployed to the scene, and drones and robots are also being used in the rescue efforts. Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said that X-ray equipment from Israel would arrive overnight to help find possible survivors in the rubble. He also said that fresh air was being pumped into the building in the hope of sustaining any survivors.
Professional rescuer Pakapong Sukha told reporters that he had been working for more than 24 hours without sleep and had rescued two people from the rubble, but only one survived. He said the survivor's head was down, stuck in a hole, which allowed him to survive. He talked to the survivor for nearly an hour, but because the person was Burmese, he couldn't understand much, and the person was about 25 years old. Pakapong has been involved in rescue work for 37 years, including the tsunami rescue 20 years ago and another major building collapse in Nakhon Ratchasima Province in northeastern Thailand. He believes the rescue operation may take a month. He said that from the outside, it's just a pile of concrete, but inside it's full of dust, steel, and broken mirrors.
The fact that other areas of the Thai capital did not suffer severe damage has raised questions about why this building collapsed so easily. The building was originally planned to be the new office building for the National Audit Office, which has now announced an independent investigation and invited engineers to assess whether there were structural problems. Construction on the building began in 2020 and cost more than 2.13 billion baht (approximately A$100 million). The Nation Thailand reported that the Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department believes that "structural instability" was one of the causes of the collapse. Welder Pornsak believes that there should have been more workers on such a large construction site and expressed concerns about the quality of construction. Now, it is a race against time to find possible survivors under the rubble, and authorities estimate that dozens of people are still trapped.
Pornsak said he hoped those people could reach the basement, which might be their only chance of survival, and he hoped they could be found. As time passed, families waited patiently, occasionally breaking down emotionally and crying out loud. The media broadcast images of the twisted and deformed ruins to the world. Late on Saturday, when news broke that someone might have been found, people flocked to the edge of the construction site. A woman watching paramedics prepare a stretcher turned away and buried her head in the shoulder of a relative, tears streaming down her face, as she anxiously awaited the rescue outcome. But after waiting for at least 20 minutes, her hopes were dashed, and she eventually silently returned to the crowd, quietly awaiting the fate of her loved one. For the families, it is a disturbing wait as they try to understand and anticipate the actions of the rescuers.
