Bangkok declares the disaster area, evacuated buildings

The Bangkok authorities declared the Thai capital as a “disaster area” on Friday, after a powerful earthquake in neighboring Myanmar created tremors that caused the buildings to shed dramatically and a skyscraper in construction to collapse.

Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt said the worst damage was to a 33 -story building that was being built in the Chatuchak district. Sittipunt said that 83 construction workers had been trapped inside. In an update shared on social networks at 10 pm local time (11 am et), the Bangkok incident command center said 10 people had died. The images of the building collapse quickly showed residents and tourists in the area that ran in panic.

“At present, the earthquake can still lead to replicas, which leads to Bangkok authorities to urgently evaluate damaged areas, monitor areas at risk and provide assistance to affected residents, as well as to address any continuous danger that can represent risks to public safety,” said Bangkok’s City Council in a statement transmitted by Google.

In Myanmar, where the ruling military board has declared an emergency state, at least 144 people were reported dead and 732 wounds, according to Reuters, which cited an update on Friday night on state television. According to the reports, the Chief of the Junta de Myanmar said that there would be “many more” deaths and victims “and that routes for international assistance had been opened.

Bangkok -cracked buildings and bridges were being inspected by engineers for stability on Friday, although authorities reported that people could return to buildings without serious damage. As the city notoriously, the city reached severe levels that entered Friday night, with some important outputs of the highway closed, the authorities said that four main parks would remain open, providing water and toilet trucks.

The Thailand Stock Exchange suspended trade in all bags from Friday afternoon from 2:07 pm local time, while several Bangkok shopping centers closed for the rest of Friday and the Metro BTS system was closed.

Meanwhile, offices in the dense city on skyscrapers were evacuated on Friday afternoon.

Finance worker Bell SatiraPraarkul told CNBC that he was lunch at the restaurant on the ground floor of his office in the Ratchayothin neighborhood in northern Bangkok when he felt trembling. The employees were excluded from the site until Saturday as soon as possible without being able to collect their cars.

You could see several high buildings swinging severely when the water of the pools of the roof was poured on the side and articles were thrown.

Automobile manufacturer Nissan He told CNBC that he had stopped his manufacturing operations in Thailand until the Thai authorities evaluated the situation as safe. “Nissan put the safety of employees as a priority. From now on, we have confirmed that all employees of Nissan Thailand are safe and evacuated. We are verifying if there are damage to our facilities,” said a spokesman.

Bangkok hospitals were reported safe and operated as normal.

The main airport of Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi, issued an update at 8:55 am, time of the United Kingdom (4:55 am et) saying that operations continued as normal. The flight data in Flightradar24 showed that the airplanes took off and landed at both Bangkok airports. CNBC has contacted the main airlines to obtain updates on their operations.

In a notice, the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “There has been an earthquake of magnitude of 7.7 in Myanmar, with strong tremors reported in Thailand and some damages reported to the buildings in Bangkok. There may be after the shocks. If it is in the area or plans to travel there, follow the council of the local authorities or their tourist operator and monitor the local media.”

The Aviation Analysis Agency Cirium told CNBC that so far there had been little impact on flight operations in Myanmar or Thailand.

In a afternoon statement in the day, the Minister of Finance, Pichai Chunhavajira, said there were no reports of significant damage to the economic or financial system of Thailand, and that the operations of banks and government agencies would not be affected.

Chunhavajira added that the Ministry of Finance would seek to help those affected financially and the ways of providing funds for damage recovery and repair of construction and factory machinery, as well as to urge insurers to prepare to help the insured impacted.

“I would like to ask the public, investors and commercial operators who trust that Thailand’s economic system is strong and stable, and that government agencies are ready to take all necessary measures to ensure that the situation is under careful and effective control,” said Chunhavajira, according to a Google translation.