ITV News correspondent Peter Smith reports from the scene of the building collapse in Bangkok.
This powerful earthquake has caused destruction far and wide. Where I am in Bangkok is 600 miles from the epicentre but still, the force brought down a building in the Chatuchak district, with workers trapped inside.
The collapsed building was under construction, a future government building — now approximately 81 people remain unaccounted for at the scene.
On the ground in the Thai capital, the dust still hasn’t settled and rescue teams emerge from the rubble caked thick with white dust.
Police and the military are overseeing the operation, while Buddhist monks in orange robes bless each rescue worker individually as they go in and again as they come out. They're searching for signs of life on this humid night, under the floodlights.
A woman reacts as she watches rescuers at the site of the high-rise building collapse. Credit: AP
What we know is the construction workers at this site were mainly a mix of locals and migrant workers from neighbouring Myanmar. It is of course Myanmar to the northwest of here that was the epicentre and took the full brunt of the earthquake which registered a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake.
To give a frame of reference to that, when our teams reported on that devastating earthquake in Turkey two years ago, which cost tens of thousands of lives, that was a very similar strength to this one at 7.9.
The earthquake struck without warning around 1.30pm — the lucky ones here were able to run for their lives.
Across the city, buildings were heard making a repetitive thudding sound, noticeably shaking and swaying. Then we saw the rooftop pools from 5-star hotels here turn into waterfalls, the earthquake creating waves that poured down onto the streets below.
Then, sheer panic. As the lights flickered and windows rattled, people just started running for whatever looked to be a safe place to go — anywhere away from buildings and debris.
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This part of the world is also still scarred by the earthquake and tsunami that hit 20 years ago, destroying so much of Thailand’s west coast.
That history is driving additional tension here tonight, and there is a noticeable fear of aftershocks. There’s already been one in Myanmar that registered 6.4 this afternoon, but a lot of misinformation has been spread online today about imminent tremors forcing people to evacuate from buildings unnecessarily.
Bangkok is particularly vulnerable to this kind of natural disaster with so many high rises and so many new, tall buildings under construction.
In this city of nine million people, public transport has been completely shut down, and the mayor of Bangkok has tonight called the Thai capital “a disaster zone.”
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