At least 144 people have been killed and 732 injured by the 7.7 magnitude quake which struck near Mandalay, Myanmar this morning, state-run MRTV said on Telegram.
Preliminary reports confirmed at least eight people are dead in Bangkok, where a high-rise under construction collapsed, a Thai government official has confirmed.
The full extent of death, injury and destruction across the region is not immediately clear. Myanmar’s government says blood is in high demand in the hardest-hit areas.
‘The death toll and injuries are expected to rise,’ Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s military government, said in a televised speech this evening.
The total number of fatalities is ‘most likely to be in the range 10,000-100,000’, scientists have warned, citing the United States Geological Survey ‘PAGER’ forecast.
The massive quake, with an epicentre near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, struck at midday and was followed by a strong 6.4 magnitude aftershock.
It also hit Thailand, where rescuers in the capital Bangkok were searching in the rubble of a tower block that had been under construction and collapsed.
There were 117 people missing and five dead following the building collapse, according to the rescue operation. Crews are still pulling victims from the rubble.
Today’s quake is strongest to hit Thailand since the 1839 Ava Earthquake, which the Myanmar Institute of Earth and Planetary Sciences estimates measured up to 8.3 in magnitude. The tremor hit present-day central Myanmar, killing hundreds of people.
A gigantic undersea 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia on December 26, 2004, unleashing a series of catastrophic tsunamis across a dozen countries – including Thailand – that obliterated everything in their path and killed an estimated 230,000 people.
Workers running away from a building as it collapses at a construction site in Bangkok, following an earthquake on March 28, 2025
A resident looks on next to a collapsed building in Mandalay on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake in central Myanmar
A damaged building after an earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar today. The shallow tremor struck central Myanmar at 13.20 local time (6.50GMT), and was followed minutes later by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock
The shallow tremor struck central Myanmar at 13.20 local time (6.50GMT), and was followed minutes later by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock.
The quake brought down multiple buildings, including the Ma Soe Yane monastery, one of the largest in Manadalay, and damaged the former royal palace.
Christian Aid said its partners and colleagues on the ground reported that a dam burst in the city, causing water levels to rise in the lowland areas in the area.
A rescue worker from the Moe Saydanar charity group told Reuters that it had retrieved at least 60 bodies from monasteries and buildings in Pyinmanar, near the capital city of Naypyidaw, and more people were trapped.
‘This 60 is only from my charity group and only at Pyinmanar town,’ he said.
Officials at a major hospital in Naypyidaw declared it a ‘mass casualty area’, with the death toll expected to rise after buildings fell and debris scattered.
‘I haven’t seen (something) like this before. We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted now,’ a doctor told the AFP news agency.
Myanmar’s military junta is locked in a struggle to put down insurgents fighting its rule, a situation that is likely to complicate the rescue and relief operation.
Professor Ian Main, Personal Chair in Seismology and Rock Physics, School of GeoSciences, at the University of Edinburgh said: ‘The damage is likely to be very severe near the epicentre- based on the estimated intensity of ground shaking above, and maps of population density and vulnerability of buildings.
The force caused a mosque in Mandalay to collapse, with at least ten worshippers reported to have been killed.
More than 20 children are also believed to be trapped in a destroyed school in Taungoo, central Myanmar.
- Shallow 7.7 magnitude quake struck central Myanmar at 13.20 local time, just before 7am GMT
- Powerful quakes felt in Myanmar, Thailand, India and China today, causing hundreds of homes to collapse
- Monitoring group warns of tens of thousands of possible fatalities, with numbers still rising
- Red Cross warns damage to infrastructure in Myanmar could see large dams could burst and flood huge areas
- At least three dead and 90 missing after high-rise apartment block collapses in Bangkok, Thailand
- Two were killed and 20 trapped when an eight-storey hotel in Aung Ben, Myanmar collapsed
