Tourists in Bangkok were left scrambling for their lives after swimming in a skyscraper’s rooftop pool when a devastating earthquake hit.
Shocking footage captured the moment two people were lounging in a pool under the sun before a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Thailand and Myanmar on Friday.
One man standing by a deckchair looked on as the couple bobbed in the water, when suddenly the water started to lap against the glass barrier.
As the water started violently thrashing, the three tourists started panicking as they tried to steady themselves against the shaking building.
The couple in the pool can be seen getting thrown from their float into the water while the man on the deck sits down to grip onto the wooden chair.
Waves of water spill out from the pool onto the decking area as the pool water crashes against the glass separating the tourists from the top of the city.
The couple desperately climb out of the pool as the building shakes, attempting to run for shelter indoors as the decking becomes flooded.
They manage to make a lucky escape, along with the other male tourist, as they run down the outdoor platform behind the deckchairs and back into the skyscraper.
Shocking footage has emerged showing tourists scrambling from a skyscraper infinity pool as an earthquake hit in Thailand
The three tourists were seen scrambling for safety as the water lapped around them
The building violently shook, sending pool water sloshing against the glass barrier and onto the decking area
One of the loungers was seen being thrown over the building edge
A staff member can be seen at the end of the clip skidding along the soaked floor behind them, while the blue lounger the couple had been relaxing on just moments before is tossed over the side of the pool.
The scale of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake which hit Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, and the destruction it has caused, has been laid bare in shocking footage of the disaster.
Rescuers are still desperately searching for survivors more than three days after the devastating quake hit, with at least 1,700 people now confirmed dead in Myanmar after what was the largest earthquake to hit the war-ravaged country in more than a century, authorities say.
Experts fear the exact death toll could take weeks to confirm, but the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that the final death toll could surpass 10,000 people.
Widespread damage has been reported after the earthquake caused bridges and buildings to come tumbling down in Bangkok, where authorities are trying to free dozens believed to be trapped under the rubble of an under-construction high-rise.
At least 18 people were killed in the Thai capital when the quake hit. Of these, 11 died when an under-construction building collapsed in minutes, leaving dozens trapped under the rubble.
Seven fatalities were reported elsewhere in the capital, authorities said.
Search and rescue operations are ongoing in Bangkok for around 80 people who remain missing, as families gathered at the site of the collapsed high-rise for any news on their loved ones.
‘I’ve called my husband who’s trapped inside countless times. Probably 100 to 200 calls a day, but none of them go through,’ Kannika Noommisri told Reuters.
A high-rise apartment was shaken so violently that pool water cascaded down the side
Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building after the tremors of a strong earthquake that struck central Myanmar
Water cascades down from a rooftop swimming pool in Bangkok as the quake struck
Panicked residents stand outside an office building in Bangkok after the earthquake
Multiple videos have circulated showing swimming pools atop high-rise buildings in Bangkok being emptied as the earthquake flung water out of them and down onto the street below.
Millions of people rushed to get out of buildings as the quake hit the Thai capital, with dramatic footage showing panicked locals and tourists screaming as they pushed past each other to get out of a shopping centre in the city.
The tremors forced the suspension of some metro and light rail services in the city, with video showing Bangkok’s famous Skytrain being violently rocked as commuters grip on to each other.
Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai offered no more details about the ongoing rescue efforts but first responders said that seven people had been rescued so far from outside the collapsed building.
Terrifying footage shows the moment workers ran for their lives from the building site as the apartment block collapses behind them, sending a huge cloud of dust and debris into the air.
The US Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ centre for geosciences said the quake struck at a shallow 6.2 miles below the surface, before a second quake, with a magnitude of 6.4, shook the area 12 minutes later.
The force of the tremors caused a mosque in the city of Mandalay, close to the epicentre of the quake, to collapse, with at least ten worshippers said to have been killed.
Officials at a major hospital in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw have declared it a ‘mass casualty area’, with the death toll in the country expected to rise after buildings were toppled and debris was sent flying.
In Naypyidaw, the country’s military capital 257km south of Mandalay, a three-story hospital partially collapsed, trapping patients beneath the rubble, Chinese state media said.
Some 40 hours after the quake, China’s rescue team rescued one person from the debris.
Workers were seen walking away from the building slowly when it began to topple as the tremors shook the Thai capital
Terrifying footage shows the moment an apartment block under construction collapsed in Bangkok
Workers fled in terror as the building gave way after being shaken by the force of the quake
People sprinted to get to safety as the earthquake struck Bangkok
Large parts of neighbouring Thailand also felt the quake, with a state of emergency declared in the country’s capital, which is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.
Alarms went off in buildings as the earthquake hit around 1.30pm local time, and startled residents were evacuated down staircases of high-rise buildings and hotels in densely populated central Bangkok.
Witnesses in Bangkok said people ran out onto the streets in panic, many of them hotel guests in bathrobes and swimming costumes as water cascaded down from an elevated pool at a luxury hotel.
‘All of a sudden the whole building began to move, immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic,’ said Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, who was in one of Bangkok’s many malls shopping for camera equipment.
‘I just started walking calmly at first but then the building started really moving, yeah, a lot of screaming, a lot of panic, people running the wrong way down the escalators, lots of banging and crashing inside the mall.’
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Friday she had interrupted an official visit to the southern island of Phuket to hold an ‘urgent meeting’ after the quake, according to a post on X.
Tremors were also felt in China’s southwest Yunnan province, according to Beijing’s quake agency, which said the jolt measured 7.9 in magnitude.
Earthquakes are relatively common in Myanmar, where six strong quakes of 7.0 magnitude or more struck between 1930 and 1956 near the Sagaing Fault, which runs north to south through the centre of the country, according to the USGS.
A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake in the ancient capital Bagan in central Myanmar killed three people in 2016, also toppling spires and crumbling temple walls at the tourist destination.
The breakneck pace of development in Myanmar’s cities, combined with crumbling infrastructure and poor urban planning, has also made the country’s most populous areas vulnerable to earthquakes and other disasters, experts say.
The impoverished Southeast Asian nation has a strained medical system, especially in its rural states.
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