Latest update March 26th, 2026 12:30 AM
Over 160 dead after earthquake hits Myanmar, Thailand
(ALJAZEERA) A powerful earthquake has hit Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand, destroying buildings, damaging infrastructure and killing more than 160 people.
The head of Myanmar’s military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, said that at least 144 people were killed and 730 others were injured in his country. The quake also hit Thailand, where at least 10 people were killed in the capital, Bangkok, according to city authorities.
Motorists ride past a damaged building after a strong earthquake struck central Myanmar, in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 28, 2025 [Reuters]
Damaged pagodas are seen after the earthquakes on March 28, 2025, in Naypyidaw, Myanmar [Aung Shine Oo/AP Photo]
Workers in Bangkok, Thailand, leave a construction site where a high rise collapsed when strong earthquakes struck central Myanmar on March 28, 2025 [Ann Wang/Reuters]
In the Sagaing region just west of the city, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and some sections of the highway connecting Mandalay and Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, were also damaged.
The Red Cross said downed power lines added to challenges for their teams trying to reach several hard-hit areas. At least three people were killed in the town of Taungoo, south of Naypyidaw, when a mosque partially collapsed, according to witnesses who spoke to news agency Reuters. “We were saying prayers when the shaking started. … Three died on the spot,” one of the witnesses said. Local media reported at least two people died and 20 were injured when a hotel collapsed in Aung Ban. A major hospital in Naypyidaw was declared a “mass casualty area”, an official at the facility told the AFP news agency.
Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building in Bangkok after the earthquakes, whose epicentres were in central Myanmar[Ann Wang/Reuters]
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra announced a state of emergency in her country. Meanwhile, Bangkok has been declared a disaster area, the capital’s city hall said on Friday.
Urban rail systems in Bangkok were temporarily closed but were expected to resume services on Saturday. Tremors were also felt in the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China. They caused injuries and damage to houses in the city of Ruili on the border with northern Myanmar, according to Chinese media reports. Videos that one outlet said it had received from a person in Ruili in Yunnan showed building debris littering a street and a person being wheeled on a stretcher towards an ambulance. Cambodia, Bangladesh and India also reported tremors.
Humanitarian response
Julie Mehigan, head of Asia, the Middle East and Europe for Christian Aid, said the earthquake would have left many people “devastated” in war-torn Myanmar, which is already experiencing a significant humanitarian crisis.
“Myanmar is one of the least developed countries in the world. Even before this heartbreaking earthquake, we know conflict and displacement has left countless people in real need,” she said. World Health Organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris said at a media briefing that the earthquake was a “very, very big threat to life and health”. “We’ve activated our logistics hub to look particularly for trauma supplies and things like external fixators because we expect that there will be many, many injuries that need to be dealt with,” she said.
Marie Manrique, programme coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross, told reporters in Geneva via videolink from Yangon that the organisation anticipates the impact to be “quite large”. “Public infrastructure has been damaged, including roads, bridges and public buildings. We currently have concerns for large-scale dams that people are watching to see the conditions of them,” she said.
Previous quakes in Myanmar
Earthquakes are relatively common in Myanmar, where six strong quakes of magnitude 7 or higher struck from 1930 to 1956 near the Sagaing Fault, which runs north to south through the centre of the country, according to the USGS.
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in the ancient capital Bagan in central Myanmar killed three people in 2016, toppling spires and crumbling temple walls at the tourist destination. The impoverished Southeast Asian nation has a strained medical system, especially in its rural states. Moreover, Cheng said it is important to remember that Myanmar is a country in the grips of a bitter civil war. “A lot of the people have moved from the countryside into the cities to try and escape,” he noted. “That has meant it is densely overcrowded and the building standards are not particularly strong.”
(Over 160 dead after earthquake hits Myanmar, Thailand)
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