Travelling at a rate of about 5cm a year, the Indian plate crunches into the Eurasian plate, forcing the crust to crumple and rise. But this movement is not smooth — it often happens in violent lurches. Friday’s earthquake in Myanmar was the consequence of one such adjustment, a sudden, destructive shift in the fabric of the Earth.

The quake, with a magnitude of 7.7, appears to have been triggered by movement along the Sagaing Fault, which splits the Indian plate from the Sunda plate, which lies to the east.

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President Trump said on Friday that he had spoken with officials in Myanmar about the earthquake and that his administration would be providing some form of assistance.

“We’re going to be helping,” he told reporters at the White House.

Separately, the US Agency for International Development will send some teams to Thailand to help with recovery efforts. USAid, as the agency is known, has been a target for cuts by the Trump administration, with more than 80 per cent of its programmes cancelled since January.

The United Nations is preparing to “fully mobilise” their resources in southeast Asia to help those in need.

“The government of Myanmar has asked for international support and our team in Myanmar is already in contact in order to fully mobilise our resources in the region to support the people of Myanmar,” the UN’s secretary-general António Guterres said.

“But of course there are other countries impacted. The epicentre is in Myanmar, and Myanmar is the weakest country in this present situation,” he added.

Myanmar is often exposed to large earthquakes, with at least 14 earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or above occurring in the region over the past century.

But Dr Ian Watkinson, Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, says that Mandalay, a city close to the epicentre of the latest quake, has experienced significant growth since 2010. “Notably there has been a boom in high-rise buildings constructed from reinforced concrete,” he said.

“During all previous magnitude-7 or larger earthquakes along the Sagaing Fault, Myanmar was relatively undeveloped. Today’s earthquake is the first test of modern Myanmar’s infrastructure against a large, shallow-focus earthquake close to its major cities.

“Based on the similar earthquake in southern Turkey in February 2023 and the damage that occurred there after years of unregulated construction, it is likely similar damage has occurred in Mandalay and Sagaing and perhaps other cities and towns in central Myanmar.”

Tom Andrews, a UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told Times Radio the earthquake could be “a disaster on top of a disaster”.

“You’ve got 20 million people in need of humanitarian aid before this earthquake hit. Three and a half million internally displaced persons before the earthquake hit. Half the population falling into poverty before the earthquake hit. So already you have a very, very difficult situation.

“You have, in a sense, a disaster on top of a disaster. Then on top of that, we’ve seen in natural disasters in the past that the military junta of Myanmar will weaponise aid. It will block aid from going into areas that are extremely vulnerable and extremely in need.”

Myanmar nationals outside their home country, many of them refugees fleeing the civil war, have been frantically trying to contact their loved ones inside Myanmar.

Emily’s family were visiting the Ma Soe Yein monastery, one of the largest in Mandalay, when the quake struck. Originally from Yangon, Emily now lives in Thailand, where she runs a small restaurant. Although her family first thought they would be safe inside the monastery, it collapsed. Three of her great aunts, who she refers to as her “grandmothers”, were killed.

“All my other relatives and family members are so sad and devastated to hear about it,” she said. “My grandmothers took care of me when I was young and I feel bad that I can not go back and see them for the last time.

“Our family cannot believe this, yet we have to accept the situation,” she said. “I feel so sad and devastated about it. There are a lot of disasters that are happening in the country, and now a natural disaster happened too, and we lost a lot of lives. It is so bad, and I am miserable.”

The official death toll issued by Myanmar’s junta only includes fatalities from Sagaing, Kyaukse and Naypyidaw — and excludes Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city, located just a few miles away from the earthquake’s epicentre.

This suggests the real death toll is likely to be much higher.

The United States Geological Survey warns that much of Myanmar’s population is at higher risk as they reside “in structures that are vulnerable to earthquake shaking”.

General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta’s leader, meets survivors in the compound of a hospital in Naypyidaw, the capital

SAI AUNG MAIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

After a disastrous earthquake such as the one that struck central Myanmar on Friday morning, several things are needed to ensure fast and efficient rescue efforts and relief: good physical and medical infrastructure, a flexible and competent government willing to co-operate with international aid givers, and a secure environment in which they can operate.

Myanmar lacks all of these. The scale of the human and physical destruction will emerge over the next few days as foreign governments and aid agencies plan their responses to the earthquake, but one thing is clear at the beginning — the quake has struck one of the countries least able, or even willing, to deal with such a blow.

For decades, Myanmar has been a poor and undeveloped country, with transport, healthcare and telecommunications far behind its prosperous neighbour, Thailand. Responsibility lies with the sequence of corrupt and kleptocratic military governments that have ruled the country, with only a brief interlude of democracy, since the 1960s. All, to varying degrees, have acted with suspicion and wariness towards western governments that make no secret of their disapproval, and frank contempt, for an oppressive and illegitimate regime.

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By Fintan Hogan

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called on Myanmar’s junta to provide “swift access” and “timely approval” for its humanitarian response.

MSF, which already has mobile healthcare units based near the coast, said its humanitarian staff “have the capacity to respond at scale to the needs of affected communities” provided that “authorities facilitate swift and unhindered access”.

“The ability to deploy assessment teams and, ideally, surgical capacity, are critical in the first hours and days after any earthquake if we hope to respond with life and limb-saving surgical care,” it said in a statement.

On its website, the charity criticised the military for leaving medical services in “disarray” since its 2021 coup, “threatening millions of people’s ability to access healthcare”.

Tens of thousands of people are now forecast to lose their lives in Myanmar as the United States Geological Survey upgraded the earthquake’s status to a “red alert”.

The US agency said “high casualties and extensive damage” was expected from red-alert quakes, adding: “Past red alerts have required a national or international response.”

It may take several weeks or even months to gain an understanding of the quake’s full extent as emergency responders work through the rubble in disaster areas. Myanmar’s junta is also expected to limit the amount of official information it publishes while reining in internet use.

The national unity government (NUG), a parallel government formed of elected politicians and members of parliament ousted in the 2021 Myanmar coup d’état, has warned of further damage to “cultural heritage”, housing and religious sites, while also mourning the loss of life.

“[The earthquake] also had a great impact on businesses and workers from various industries and their dependent families,” a statement by the NUG read.

It said landslides had also taken place in some areas, with key roads and bridges being “severely impacted”.

“Our ministry is deeply saddened by the damage caused by such an earthquake at home and abroad,” it added.

As night falls in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, near the quake’s epicentre, residents slept outside and on the street, on makeshift mattresses and blankets.

Many are too scared to return to their homes, The New York Times reports.

A Mandalay resident said that at least ten aftershocks had been felt since the earthquake that hit Mandalay in the afternoon, according to The Yangon Times.

Dr Margaret Harris from the World Health Organisation has spoken to Times Radio about how the response in Myanmar will be “much more complex” than that in Thailand.

“When you’ve got a large number of internally displaced people, their health needs are much more complex. And then you’re simply now adding to more people who’ve lost their homes and are in a state of great confusion,” said Harris.

She also spoke of the need to “provide mental health first aid” as early as possible, with many having lost their homes and families.

“We’re hearing about huge amounts of damage and trying to understand the level of disruption,” she added. “We know, for instance, that a bridge has collapsed. We’re concerned about the various dams — there are quite a lot of dams on the Irrawaddy — and what the loss or destruction of those might mean.”

The earthquake was felt over the Myanmar border with China. Videos from Ruili, the border crossing in a remote part of the mountainous province of Yunnan, showed damaged buildings and debris and an injured man being ferried away on a stretcher.

Buildings also trembled in Kunming, the provincial capital, and Dali, a major hub for tourism in the Yunnan foothills of the Tibetan plateau, though there were no immediate reports of anyone being killed. Chinese state media described rescue efforts being carried out on the Chinese side of the border, and quoted from the experiences of Chinese citizens living in Myanmar and Thailand.

However, there was no mention of whether China might lead search and rescue or other relief efforts inside Myanmar, in theory a close ally.

Beijing has been one of the few countries to hold out a hand to the military junta since the Myanmar coup of 2021, blocking UN sanctions resolutions. However, it has made clear it is a reluctant friend, and has been publicly critical of its approach to government. As the country has begun to fall apart in the civil war, Beijing has hosted talks between different sides and met representatives of opposition and even rebel groups.

At least nine people have died in Bangkok as a result of Friday’s earthquake, an official told Reuters.

Of the confirmed casualties in the Thai capital, eight were killed when a building under construction collapsed.

Emergency responders have been searching the rubble of the collapsed tower block throughout the day and were able to rescue one construction worker who had been stuck in an elevator shaft, according to the Thai News Agency. There were still more than 100 people missing.

The head of the ruling junta in Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing, also said in his statement that he would welcome “any organisations and nations willing to come and help”.

“I have approved a request from the AHA Centre [humanitarian office of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations], which will be sending aid tomorrow, and India will also be sending assistance,” he added.

The junta’s rhetoric is so far in contrast to responses to previous natural disasters. As we reported earlier, in 2008 when Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta was hit by a devastating cyclone that killed at least 138,000, the junta sealed off the cyclone disaster zone from the outside world.

At least 144 people have been killed in Myanmar, the country’s state broadcaster said on Telegram.

The number of people injured currently stands at 732, according to the post.

A military leader said 96 people have died in the capital Naypyidaw, 18 in Sagaing and 30 in Mandalay.

Analysis by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia correspondent for The Times

When Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta was hit by a devastating cyclone that killed at least 138,000 people in 2008 the junta of the day only reluctantly let in foreign aid, despite the pleas of foreign governments and the UN. At one point the Burmese authorities sealed off the cyclone disaster zone from the outside world, expelling foreign aid workers and placing multiple checkpoints along roads into the delta, to the despair of foreign diplomats and aid workers.

Seventeen years later, Myanmar’s situation is far worse now than it was then. It is not only a country oppressed, but one in a state of civil war, between Min Aung Hlaing’s government forces and an assortment of regional guerrilla groups and People’s Defence Forces, who fight in the name of the National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow government of deposed democratic politicians.

Devastation in Wundwin Township, Myanmar

XINHUA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Analysis by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia correspondent for The Times

After a disastrous earthquake such as the one that struck central Myanmar yesterday, several things are needed to ensure fast and efficient rescue efforts and relief: good physical and medical infrastructure, a flexible and competent government willing to co-operate with international aid-givers, and a secure environment in which they can operate.

All of these Myanmar lacks. As the scale of the human and physical destruction emerge over the next few days, and foreign governments and aid agencies plan their response to the earthquake, one thing is clear from the beginning — it has struck one of the countries least able, or even willing, to deal with such a blow.

For decades, Myanmar has been a poor and undeveloped country, with transport, healthcare and telecommunications far behind its prosperous neighbour Thailand. Responsibility lies with the sequence of corrupt and kleptocratic military governments that have ruled the country with a brief interlude of democracy since the 1960s. All, to varying degrees, have acted with suspicion and wariness towards Western governments which make no secret of their disapproval, and frank contempt, for an oppressive and illegitimate regime.

A rescue worker attempts to extract a mother and her child from a collapsed building in Naypyidaw

SAI AUNG/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The ruling military in Myanmar has not released an official death toll, although the diplomatic spokesman for the parallel National Unity Government said at least 12 people had been killed so far in the Mandalay area.

There have been reports of dozens of other deaths, however, including, about 20 people who have died at a major hospital in Naypyidaw, the capital, as well as five staff members from Naypyidaw’s international airport after a traffic control tower collapsed and at least four people who were killed after a mosque collapsed.

A rescue worker in Mandalay has warned that the death toll in Myanmar is “at least in the hundreds”.

Myanmar will have been hit particularly hard by the earthquake, and not just because of the shallow location of the epicentre and its proximity to Mandalay, as Richard Lloyd-Parry, the Asia correspondent for The Times, explains to Times Radio. His analysis is below.

The epicentre of the earthquake was both shallow and near a densely populated area

ANN WANG/REUTERS

Dr Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at University College London, said the conditions of the earthquake made for the “worst-case scenario”.

“When I woke up this morning and saw the alerts on my phone, I thought, 7.7 [on the Richter scale], okay, that’s big in terms of the energy from the earthquake and then you look at what depth is it? So it’s in the top few kilometres of the crust … that means the energy is felt very strongly at the surface,” he said.

“Then I looked at the map to see where this earthquake had happened and then I see a bullseye right beneath Mandalay, which is Myanmar’s second largest city, home to about 1.5 million people,” Hicks added. “So that this is pretty much the worst-case scenario that we think of as earthquake scientists or as hazard modellers.”

Further reports near the earthquake’s epicentre in Mandalay, which once served as Myanmar’s royal capital, suggest there has been widespread damage to historic buildings.

The Mandalay National Museum and old royal palace walls are among the buildings affected, according to the Yangon Times.

Footage on social media shows severe damage to Mandalay Palace, built in the 19th century by Myanmar’s royal family. Shwe Sar Yan Pagoda, a Buddhist site dating back to the 11th century, is also said to be badly damaged.

Search and rescue operations continue in Sagaing, Myanmar

MYANMAR FIRE SERVICES DEPARTMENT/GETTY IMAGES

According to Bill McGuire, a professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, it looks as though the quake happened in what is called a seismic gap — a part of the fault that hadn’t ruptured for some time.

Unlike the more familiar subduction earthquakes, where one plate plunges beneath another, this “strike-slip” quake occurred as two blocks of the Earth’s crust grind past each other horizontally.

In this case, the western side of the fault lurched northwards relative to the eastern side, momentarily releasing some of the immense strain that had built up over many years. However, not all the strain will have been released in one go, making dangerous aftershocks all but inevitable.

The quake, with a magnitude of 7.7, appears to have been triggered by movement along the Sagaing Fault, which splits the Indian plate from the Sunda plate, which lies to the east.

Early estimates suggest that the rupture occurred at a depth of about 10km, shallow by geological standards. This matters because shallower earthquakes are typically more destructive — the release of energy is closer to the surface. This means there is relatively little time for it to be dispersed by the time it reaches buildings, bridges and people.

The location of yesterday’s quake is also concerning, says Dr Richard Luckett, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey. It struck densely populated areas, including Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city.

The geology of the region amplifies the risk, he added. Myanmar’s river valleys, formed by vast amounts of sediment washing down from the Himalayas, are prone to liquefaction. This phenomenon occurs when loose, water-saturated soil temporarily behaves like a liquid under intense shaking, causing buildings to tilt or collapse. Landslides are also a serious threat in such terrain.

The earthquake has struck Myanmar at a time when its people are grappling with the devastating effects of a civil war that started after a military coup in 2021.

More than three million people are internally displaced in the country and another 1.3 million people are counted by the United Nations as refugees.

Central Myanmar, at the earthquake’s epicentre, is already the “heartland” of conflict, Joe Freeman from Amnesty International said. He told the BBC: “There are so many issues already impacting civilians there — military airstrikes, clashes between resistance groups and the military, and different towns under different control.”

Jeremy Stoner, acting Asia regional director at Save the Children, said that children were “the most vulnerable following disaster”.

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has said his thoughts are “with those affected at this difficult time” by the “devastating” earthquake.

He urged Britons in the region to follow the Foreign Office’s advice and call the British embassy in Yangon, Myanmar, or in Bangkok, Thailand, if they were in need of urgent assistance.

Buildings at Mandalay University campus have collapsed, as the Yangon Times reported that exams were being held inside the university when the earthquake hit.

“Mandalay University has collapsed and burned due to the earthquake … there are exams being held inside the university. Many are teachers,” a university lecturer said.

Myanmar’s healthcare system has “not enough medical resources, manpower [or] emergency preparation”

ANN WANG/REUTERS

When the quake struck, Julie, a doctor in Mynamar’s largest city, Yangon, thought of her loved ones.

“I was feeling worried about my family who are away from me,” she told The Times, asking that only her first name be used. “This is my first-time experience of biggest earthquake. I felt like I might be dead or injured.”

She worried that the country’s healthcare system would not be able to cope. “I don’t think current Myanmar’s healthcare system can support and help them very much,” she said.

“They have not enough medical resources, manpower, emergency preparation and management. If possible, I want international support and help to my country.”

Thailand’s prime minister has arrived at the site of a collapsed building in Bangkok where at least 81 people are currently trapped.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra posted on X earlier today to assure “fellow citizens that the damaged area is limited”.

She added: “The aftershock that will occur after this will be milder to the point of no potential for severity, including no possibility of a tsunami.”

Steve Denyer, a Virgin Radio presenter, described the scenes outside the Banyan Tree hotel in Bangkok after he had evacuated.

“People were shellshocked, just stunned,” he said, “There was a bank building opposite us and the big signage at the top of the company’s logo had fallen over and was hanging off the top of the building.

“There’s also a 50-storey building over the road and the side of the pool had cracked and water from the pool was trickling down.”

Denyer, whose outbound flight was delayed by the Heathrow fire last week, is due to be flying home this evening if he can navigate the Bangkok traffic. He said guests had been allowed back into the hotel after about two hours.

Steve Denyer, a Virgin Radio presenter staying at the Banyan Tree hotel in Bangkok had just sat down for afternoon tea at the executive lounge on the 19th floor when he felt the earthquake.

“I thought maybe I was fainting, I felt a bit dizzy, I was discombobulated and then everything flew off the table onto the floor,” he said. “We started to sway, the room was swaying, things were falling off tables.

“You heard the structure starting to creak and then violently, things were crashing down from floors above and that’s when the screaming started.

“We went down into the emergency stairwell, the whole building was swaying, and I was really worried the roof was going to collapse.

“I thought, had something slammed into the building? Your senses go into overload when you don’t know.”

Survivors wait to receive medical attention at hospital in Naypyidaw

SAI AUNG MAIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Although official casualty numbers from Myanmar have yet to be issued, the fact that the junta has declared a state of emergency — something it rarely does — suggests there are fears of a high death toll.

“We want the international community to give humanitarian aid as soon as possible,” Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for the junta, told AFP at the hospital.

The unusual plea from the junta raises the prospect that damage and casualties may be on a large scale, with Myanmar’s medical system and infrastructure ravaged by four years of civil war.

Rescuers help a survivor of the quake in Naypyidaw

NYEIN CHAN NAING/EPA

We reported earlier that hundreds of victims had rushed to Naypyidaw General Hospital, only to find its emergency department heavily damaged. The head of Myanmar’s junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, visited the hospital earlier today.

“About 20 people died after they arrived at our hospital so far. Many people were injured,” a doctor told the AFP news agency at the 1,000-bed hospital.

The disaster is likely to have had a crushing impact on Bagan, the Unesco world heritage site in Myanmar known as “temple town”.

Images shared on social media showed many of the Buddhist temples built between the 10th and 13th centuries reduced to rubble. Flooding at the site and claims of lack of adequate repairs had long sparked fears for its treasures.

“The staff are insufficient, and there is no plan to address the shortage,” one Bagan worker told Radio Free Asia last year. “Bagan is a vast area with numerous temples, but the available workforce is inadequate. There is no strategy in place to resolve the staffing issue.”

The Stock Exchange of Thailand suspended all trading activities after the earthquake.

“Following the earthquake incident, the Stock Exchange of Thailand hereby announces the immediate suspension of all trading activities,” the bourse operator said on its website.

“The closure affects all markets, including SET, the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI), and the Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX), for today’s afternoon session.”

The exchange will begin trading again on Monday, March 31, it later said in a statement.

General Min Aung Hlaing spoke at a parade of more than 7,000 military personnel the day before the earthquake

REUTERS

Only a day before the disaster, the leader of the junta that seized power in Myanmar in 2021 had dangled the prospect of general elections and a supposed return to democracy by the end of this year, calling on opposition groups fighting the army to put down their arms.

General Min Aung Hlaing, who led an armed takeover from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, spoke at a parade of more than 7,000 military personnel.

The plan for a general election was widely seen, however, as an attempt to legitimise the junta through the ballot box and to deliver a result that ensured the generals kept control.

The leaders of Suu Kyi’s popular, but now dissolved, National League for Democracy party have been arrested. Suu Kyi, 79, is serving prison sentences totalling 27 years.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said that Europe’s Copernicus satellites were already helping first responders

YVES HERMAN/REUTERS

The EU and France have said they are ready to support the humanitarian response to the earthquake.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said on X: “Heartbreaking scenes from Myanmar and Thailand after the devastating earthquake. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. Europe’s Copernicus satellites are already helping first responders. We are ready to provide more support.”

Referring to the French embassy, schools and other infrastructure, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said: “We are ready to provide support as soon as the need has been expressed and we have evacuated our premises in Bangkok to guard against any form of risk.”

The junta that controls Myanmar limits access to the internet, meaning the full extent of the damage caused by the quake will take time to emerge. Compared with Thailand, where images of devastation are spreading online, there is comparatively little being shared from Myanmar, which has a history of internet censorship and blocking access to social media.

The authorities have, however, issued an image of the head of the junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, visiting a 1,000-bed hospital in Naypyidaw, the capital.

Joe Freeman, a Myanmar researcher at Amnesty International, told The New York Times: “Compare the coverage of the earthquake in Thailand, where tremors and damage have been extensively reported, posted and documented, to Myanmar, where we still don’t have a clear picture of the extent of the damage and loss and may not for some time.”

There has been no official comment on the number of casualties in Myanmar

SEBASTIEN BERGER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A rescue worker in Mandalay has warned that the death toll in Myanmar is “at least in the hundreds”.

“The damage is enormous,” the rescuer told the BBC, adding: “The number of deaths is also quite high. That’s all we can say right now because the rescue efforts are ongoing. The exact number of casualties is not yet known, but it is at least in the hundreds.”

There has yet to be a government or official comment on the number of casualties in Myanmar.

The building had been due to house the office of the auditor-general

ANN WANG/REUTERS

Rescue workers in Bangkok are trying to reach at least 81 people trapped under rubble after a 34-storey building under construction in the Thai capital collapsed.

According to local reports, the building was due to house the office of the auditor-general and was being built by a Chinese company. At least three construction workers are known to have died but the authorities have warned that the death toll will rise.

Somsak Satkaew, 67, said that construction workers had been shouting warnings to their colleagues. “The noise kept intensifying, and around ten minutes later, the entire building came crashing down,” he told the Thai news outlet Khaosod. He added that the quake had struck during a shift change.

People fled unstable buildings and poured on to the street in Bangkok

ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA/REUTERS

Chris Farmer, from Manila in the Philippines, said he would check out of his hotel in central Bangkok because he did not want to stay in a high-rise.

He told The Times: “There were cracks in the buildings that weren’t there before, few tracks in the stairwell… and the ventilation above our door [is] sunken. It wasn’t in good shape.

“Also, we noticed when the elevator opened at the 15th floor, the cleaners were heavily mopping something, so I guess [the earthquake] broke a pipe as well.”

Farmer said he had been with a group of friends having lunch at a restaurant near his hotel when he saw that “the building was just shaking”.

Some buildings in Bangkok have been further affected by water damage from rooftop pools

Ryan Ruparelia, 23, who is based in Bangkok but is originally from Wembley in northwest London, was in the MBK shopping centre in Naypyidaw at the time of the quake.

“All of a sudden I saw people running out the building. I thought, ‘What’s going on? Is there a terrorist attack?’ People were genuinely scared,” he said. “Then I felt the building move a bit and I started running, there was literally everyone evacuating from that building, so trying to get down the stairs was absolutely mad, there were people jumping over each other.

“I finally got out of the building, I still didn’t know what was going on. I was shocked. My leg was shaking because of all of the adrenaline.”

Ruparelia met his girlfriend, who had fainted at work, and was waiting to enter his apartment building, which was reported to have been damaged by water from the rooftop pool.

Buildings in Mandalay and Naypyidaw were heavily damaged

REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Government buildings are reported to have collapsed in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw. The permanent secretary of the labour ministry and some other senior foreign officials have been killed, according to the Yangon Times.

Buildings belonging to the foreign ministry and the labour ministry were destroyed, the newspaper reported. “Many of the dead were employees,” a military source said. “Some officials were also killed. Many were injured.”

There were reports that buildings in five cities and towns had collapsed, along with two bridges, and an expressway was damaged.

Kurt Hale, 21, a tourist from Edinburgh, has continued to describe the scenes outside the DoubleTree Hilton Sukhumvit in Bangkok.

He said that in the heat a lot of people were struggling to stay outside. The temperature reached 36 degrees earlier today.

“The roads are in gridlock,” Hale said. “There’s a lot of confusion, a lot of panic. There were people running … there were a lot of people crying, people on the phone, making sure their families were OK.”

An air traffic control tower at Nay Pyi Taw international airport, outside Myanmar’s capital, has completely collapsed, killing all staff on duty, the Yangon Times reports.

“All staff working there died,” a military source confirmed to the Myanmar newspaper.

Dust rose from the ruins of a collapsed skyscraper in Bangkok

ANN WANG/REUTERS

Kurt Hale, from Edinburgh, who is visiting Thailand to celebrate his 21st birthday, was on the 33rd floor of the DoubleTree Hilton Sukhumvit when the earthquake struck.

“There was a sense of shaking, I was still in bed at the time, I woke up, I felt like it was me being dizzy, I felt like it was vertigo,” he said.

“In reality it was very very heavy shaking, there was screaming all around me, I could hear people running and evacuating. My toiletries all fell off the shelf and the mirror did fall as well, it shattered.

“I went outside and from that distance I could see the skyscraper in the Chatuchak area collapsing. You could see it completely go into nothing then everything went into a standstill.”

Authorities in Bangkok have already received 169 calls about building damage

LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Three people have now been confirmed dead in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok’s governor said.

Chadchart Sittipunt also warned of the possibility of aftershocks. Authorities in the Thai capital have already received 169 calls about building damage.

A collapsed building in the Chatuchak area of Bangkok

LAUREN DECICCA/GETTY IMAGES

A British holidaymaker described how window panes started “popping out of the side” of the building next to his hotel as the earthquake hit Bangkok.

“We were out by the pool on the 11th floor at the Rembrandt Hotel and my girlfriend asked me if the floor was moving when she was lying on the bed. And then suddenly I realised it was also moving,” Kurt Bull, from Norwich, said.

He is spending ten days on holiday in Thailand with his Swedish partner, Sigrid.

“Then the building beside the Rembrandt started moving a lot and was really creaking,” he said. “You could hear cracking of the structure, and the smaller glass windows were popping out at the side of the building.

“When we went to leave the pool area, all of the tiles and some of the roof in the stairwell had come down and smashed all over the floor, and I had no shoes with me so I was barefoot, so I didn’t want to go through the tower.”

Better building standards can allow people to escape structures that fell

ANN WANG/REUTERS

Experts are warning that getting humanitarian relief into the worst-affected areas of Myanmar is likely to be politically difficult.

“In 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed over 130,000 people in the country. The government took days to accept significant aid and then inhibited its delivery,” said Ilan Kelman, professor of disasters and health at University College London.

“Helping people in need without helping an oppressive government is a tricky situation for aid donors to navigate, not helped by the reported damage to transportation and communication systems.”

Better building standards might have allowed people to escape structures that fell, he said, adding that the scale of the disaster would reflect failures of governance before the earthquake. “The usual mantra is that earthquakes don’t kill people, collapsing infrastructure does. Governments are responsible for planning regulations and building codes.”

One of the injured people at the hospital in Naypyidaw

SAI AUNG MAIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Hundreds of injured people in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, rushed to a big hospital only to find its emergency department heavily damaged.

“Many injured people have been arriving, I haven’t seen anything like this before,” a doctor at the hospital told AFP. “We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted.”

Some victims sat stunned with their heads in their hands, blood caking their faces and limbs, the news agency reported. A security official at the hospital said: “Hundreds of injured people are arriving … but the emergency building here also collapsed.”

The head of Myanmar’s junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, visited the hospital earlier this morning.

Buildings in the region are “unlikely to be designed against seismic forces”

Local infrastructure in Myanmar and some parts of Thailand are “unlikely to be designed against seismic forces”, a leading seismologist told The Times, amid fears this could result in higher casualties.

Dr Roger Musson, an honorary research fellow at the British Geological Survey, said: “Large earthquakes in this region are rare but not unknown, the last similar event being in 1956.

“This means that buildings are unlikely to be designed against seismic forces, and therefore are more vulnerable when an earthquake like this occurs, resulting in more damage and higher casualties.

“The ultimate cause of the earthquake is the northward movement of the Indian plate, which produces a tearing effect along N-S trending vertical faults.”

Emergency services workers treat the injured at a hospital in Naypyidaw

SAI AUNG MAIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

At least four people were killed when a mosque partially collapsed in Myanmar, a witness told Reuters.

“We got four bodies so far. There can be more. We are arranging the rescues and funeral now. The collapse happened right before the prayer. People ran out. Some couldn’t,” one of the people in the town of Taungoo, in the Bago region, told the news agency.

Another said: “We were saying prayers when the shaking started … three died on the spot.”

Patients were treated outdoors at a hospital in Bangkok after the quake

RUNGROJ YONGRIT/EPA

Two people were killed and seven have been rescued from a collapsed building in Bangkok, according to emergency responders.

The Thai capital has now been declared a disaster area by Bangkok’s city hall, according to a report by the news agency AP.

Myanmar’s junta, which seized control of government from the democratically elected National League for Democracy in 2021, has declared a state of emergency in six regions.

The junta’s chief, General Min Aung Hlaing, has arrived at a hospital in Naypyidaw where wounded people are being treated. The junta has made a rare request for international humanitarian aid.

The Thai deputy prime minister has said no state of emergency has been declared in Bangkok, despite some earlier news reports. However, Anutin Charnvirakul described the situation as serious.

An injured man is rescued from a construction site

LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

There have been more reports from a big hospital in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, which an official described as a “mass casualty area”.

Speaking to the news agency AFP, the official said there were rows of wounded being treated outside the emergency department of the 1,000-bed general hospital. They said some people were writhing in pain and others were lying still as relatives sought to comfort them.

More than 20 children are reported to be trapped in a school in the city of Taungoo, in central Myanmar, after the building collapsed.

Charitable organisations are trying to rescue the trapped children, according to the Yangon Times, a Myanmar newspaper, which said that the Welu Wan school had been sheltering displaced people.

India was ready to offer “all possible assistance” to Myanmar and Thailand after the countries were struck by the 7.7-magnitude earthquake, Narendra Modi, the prime minister, said.

“Praying for the safety and wellbeing of everyone,” Modi wrote on X.

“India stands ready to offer all possible assistance. In this regard, asked our authorities to be on standby.”

People were left crouching on the tarmac as staff urgently evacuated Mandalay airport’s buildings.

Footage shared on social media showed passengers running through the heavily damaged airport lounges and huddled on the ground on the runway near the aircraft.

Mandalay airport is one of only three international airports in Myanmar, and is located 22 miles (35km) south of Mandalay, in Tada-U.

Emergency workers help an injured man in Bangkok

ANN WANG/REUTERS

A Scottish tourist in Bangkok described the panic when the earthquake struck the Thai capital.

Fraser Morton was in one of Bangkok’s many malls shopping for camera equipment. “All of a sudden the whole building began to move, immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic,” he told the AP news agency.

“I just started walking calmly at first but then the building started really moving … a lot of screaming, a lot of panic, people running the wrong way down the escalators, lots of banging and crashing inside the mall.”

“I got outside and then looked up at the building, and the whole building was moving, dust and debris, it was pretty intense,” he said. “Lots of chaos.”

At least ten people have died after the earthquake hit Shwe Phone Shein Mosque in Mandalay, local media reports.

“It collapsed while we were worshipping. About three mosques collapsed. There were people trapped, so at least ten people have died now. The death toll could be higher,” a rescue worker told the Yangon Times.

Rescuers work at the site in Bangkok

ANN WANG/REUTERS

More than 40 workers are trapped after a 30-storey skyscraper under construction for government offices collapsed in Bangkok, police and medics said.

There were approximately 50 workers inside the building near Chatuchak Park at the time, according to the broadcaster Thai PBS.

A video circulating on social media appears to show a part-constructed high-rise building owned by Thailand’s Office of the Auditor General completely collapsing.

A state of emergency has been declared in Bangkok, Thailand’s prime minister said.

After hosting an urgent meeting with various cabinet ministers, Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on X that various ministries were being prepared for the disaster’s aftermath, including the health ministry, which will “prepare hospitals and emergency medical units in high-risk areas”.

Paetongtarn added: “We ask that all citizens listen to information directly from government agencies, from government operation centres only, to avoid panic and reduce the dissemination of news that is not true.”

Motorists pick up pieces of a damaged road in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar

STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Many of Bangkok’s modern buildings are strongly made, but Myanmar, a poor country ruled by a corrupt military dictatorship, does not have such standards.

The country is racked by a violent civil war between the junta and resistance forces, which will greatly add to the difficulties of any relief effort.

The first indications of damage came from Bangkok, 640 miles away from the epicentre, where people ran onto the streets in panic after the earthquake struck at about 1.20pm local time

Earthquakes are not as common in mainland southeast Asia as in Japan and Indonesia. Myanmar has the active Sagaing Fault running north to south though the centre of the country.

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake in 2016 killed three people in Bagan, the ancient Myanmar capital, and destroyed ancient temple buildings.

There have been no immediate statements from the Myanmar government on the damage caused or casualties.

Images on social media, however, appear to show the Ava Bridge — a 16-span suspension bridge built by the British in 1934 in central Myanmar — having completely collapsed. Damage was also apparent in Mandalay’s international airport.

There have yet to be any immediate reports of casualties from the earthquake. However the Thai prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, said she had interrupted an official visit to the southern island of Phuket to hold an “urgent meeting”.

Paetongtarn was in Phuket for a meeting at the time of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake.

Tremors were felt in the northern city of Chiang Mai, as well as Bangkok, according to the country’s disaster agency.

Bangkok police say a high-rise building under construction collapsed, with footage on social media showing other tall buildings collapsing in the Thai capital.

Other videos showed rooftop pools in Bangkok with water sloshing over the sides.

The greater Bangkok area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.