Rescuers tread lightly to find survivors they know are still breathing

Bangkok: It’s Saturday afternoon in steaming Bangkok and now 11 hours since rescue crews pulled a survivor from the four-storey mound of concrete, wires and dust that until Friday was a freshly topped-out skyscraper.

The heat and the violence of the building’s collapse in the 7.7-magnitude earthquake is sapping hope that the rest of the missing, 78 at the most recent count, will be found alive.

But not all of it is lost. Rescuers tell this masthead they have the locations of seven people still breathing in the rubble. It’s just that getting to them is so fraught. With 33 storeys’ worth of building rubble to sort through, the risk of further collapse is too great to go in quickly.

Rescuers work at the site a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand.Credit: AP

They say the effort at the moment is to lift risky debris and then work out how to get in. Dog squads and drones are helping the search for survivors. So are two Thai telecom companies, who have positioned trucks at the perimeter to search for phone signals.

Nine people have been confirmed dead. Search and rescue worker Thitikron Jan-iam saw one of them on Friday night. The body was coated in a fine dust, he says. Just like trees, roads and the steps of the JJ Mall opposite the site.

Search and rescue worker Thitikron Jan-iam has been on the site of the collapsed tower in Bangkok for 16 hours. Credit: Zach Hope

The dead and missing are construction workers, many believed to be from Myanmar, the worst hit country by the massive quake. Others are thought to be from Cambodia. The body Thitikron saw looked Thai, he says.

This masthead speaks to him as he waits to be relieved by the next crew. He’s been here now for 16 hours and hasn’t slept. He says one of his team members travelled 800 kilometres just to be a part of the help team.

The place was chaos on Friday night, Thitikron says. “All the people came to help – government agencies, private foundations – but we weren’t organised yet,” he says.

Almost 24 hours since the collapse, it is a different story. The wide road opposite the rubble is an ordered hustle of hundreds of people dressed in possibly dozens of different uniforms. There are pop-up kitchens, tents, trucks and gazebos. Some tourists have wandered over from the famous Chatuchak Weekend market nearby, curious, perhaps, to see what literally rattled them on Friday afternoon.

Locals, too, were terrified. Bangkok isn’t used to earthquakes.

Exhausted military personnel take a break outside the JJ Mall in Bangkok on Saturday. Credit: Zach Hope

The earthquake struck about midday on Friday with the epicentre not far from Mandalay in Myanmar, some 1300 kilometres from Bangkok. It was followed by several aftershocks including one measuring a strong 6.4 magnitude. It sent buildings in many areas toppling to the ground, buckled roads, caused bridges to collapse and burst a dam.

The country’s military-led government says at least 1644 people are dead and another 3408 are injured, with 30 others missing. The statement suggested the numbers could still rise, saying “detailed figures are still being collected.”

Myanmar’s government said blood was in high demand in the hardest-hit areas. In a country where prior governments sometimes have been slow to accept foreign aid, junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing said Myanmar was ready to accept assistance.

A 37-member team from the Chinese province of Yunnan reached the city of Yangon early on Saturday with earthquake detectors, drones and other supplies, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry dispatched two planes carrying 120 rescuers and supplies, according to a report from the Russian state news agency Tass.

India sent a search and rescue team and a medical team as well as provisions, while Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry said the country would send 50 people on Sunday to help identify and provide aid to the worst-hit areas.

The United Nations allocated $US5 million ($7.9 million) to start relief efforts. US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the US was going to help with the response, but some experts were concerned about this effort given his administration’s deep cuts in foreign assistance.

A DFAT spokesperson said there was no suggestion any Australian had been killed or injured in either Myanmar or Bangkok but that the situation was being monitored closely.

Leading Thai newspaper Matichon reported that a consortium called ITD-CREC was behind the collapsed building in the Chatuchak area of Bangkok. The consortium comprises the China Railway No. 10 company, a joint venture called PKW, and construction giant Italian-Thai Development.

The country’s largest construction company, Italian-Thai has been involved in many of Bangkok’s largest infrastructure and government projects, but is also facing a $US3 billion ($4.8 billion) debt crunch. It was also involved in the Rama II expressway, which collapsed while under construction earlier this month, killing six people and injuring 24.

Phil Robertson, director of the Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates consultancy, was having lunch with a Swedish diplomat when the quake struck and said he thought at first that he was sick. His building cracked and concrete fell on a playground, which was fortunately empty at the time.

“Everybody’s totally freaked out, to be honest,” he said, adding many had slept outside overnight out of fear of aftershocks. “The Bangkok parks were full.”

“I think there will be a lot of time spent talking about buildings and building codes because a lot of the buildings are not built to withstand earthquakes.”

Australians in need of emergency consular assistance should contact the government’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre 1300 555 135 (within Australia) and [phone] (from overseas).

With Michael Ruffles

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