A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake has struck Myanmar and Thailand, with the death toll surpassing 1,000 and injuries nearing 2,000. Rescue operations are ongoing in both countries as workers dig through rubble of collapsed buildings. India has dispatched 15 tons of humanitarian aid, including tents, food, and medicines. The true scale of the disaster is yet to emerge due to disrupted communications.
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00:00The death toll from the huge earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand has now crossed 1,000.
00:06The rescuers are still digging through the rubble of collapsed buildings.
00:09There is a desperate search going on for survivors.
00:12India has also dispatched the first tranche of humanitarian aid.
00:16At least 1,000 people have been killed and close to 2,000 people have been injured in
00:20Myanmar.
00:21Now, the worst affected regions are the places where the rescue operations are going on in
00:25full-fledged, in a full-fledged manner.
00:28With communications badly disrupted, the true scale of the disaster is yet to emerge.
00:33The toll is expected to rise significantly.
00:36India has sent humanitarian aid.
00:38There is a flight which has been dispatched to Myanmar.
00:41An Indian Air Force C-130J aircraft has flown in from Hindon, carrying 15 tonnes of relief material.
00:49Relief material includes tents, sleeping bags, blankets, ready-to-eat food, hygiene kits,
00:54solar lamps, generation set.
00:56Essential medicines have also been sent out.
01:03The epicentre of this dastardly earthquake was Myanmar and in Myanmar, the rescue operations
01:12are going on.
01:13In Thailand also, the rescue operations are going on in a full-fledged manner.
01:17India has sent close to 15 tonnes of relief material, which includes tents, sleeping bags,
01:22blankets, ready-to-eat meals, water purifiers, solar lamps, generator sets, essential medicines,
01:29antibiotics, gloves and syringes, have also been sent by India.
01:33The External Affairs Minister S.J. Shankar is personally looking at the rescue operations
01:38that are taking place both in Myanmar and in Thailand.
01:43Rescuers also are digging through debris and through collapsed buildings to look for survivors.
01:53Rescue operations both in Myanmar as well as in Thailand are taking place.
01:58The epicentre was Myanmar and the earthquake was 7.7 on the Richards scale.
02:10This was a powerful earthquake which has killed close to...
02:14At the moment, I'm joined by Christina Case, who's joining me from Bangkok.
02:23Christina, if you can tell us, what's the level of devastation that we are seeing in Bangkok?
02:28We have seen those horrific images coming in, the buildings shaking and most of the
02:32buildings, a lot of under-construction buildings also turning to rubble.
02:37Yeah, so the level of destruction I would say, I know a lot of hotels are cracked.
02:44I think even in my hotel where I was staying, some of the walls were cracking.
02:50The girl that I'm with actually stayed at a different hotel because she was on the top floor.
02:54She was on the 29th floor of our hotel when it happened and our pool was splashing everywhere.
03:00So she was nervous to stay, she stayed somewhere else.
03:03Everything's pretty much back to normal now. It seems kind of odd.
03:06I've never been in a natural disaster before, so it seems like everything should just be on pause.
03:12But everything is just back to normal. All the stores are open, the streets are full.
03:17But yesterday, I was just in the middle of an appointment and we all had to run outside.
03:22Everybody was flooding the streets, running. As a foreigner, where am I supposed to run?
03:29What do we do? Where do we go? It was really scary. It was very, very scary.
03:36I've never experienced anything like it before.
03:38But today is a new day and I'm just grateful to be alive, grateful to be here.
03:46And yeah, everything is just back to normal, it seems.
03:51Christina, were you in the building when the earthquake hit or were you out on the street?
03:57I was in the basement of a building. I was laying on a table, actually.
04:02And I was like, are you moving the table? I'm sitting here moving on this table.
04:07And she's like, no, I'm not moving the table.
04:09And I'm like, OK, well, something's moving under us.
04:12And then someone came in and was like, we need to go.
04:15So I sprinted up three flights of stairs and then everyone was flooding out of the building, just running in the streets.
04:23It was very bizarre, very scary.
04:27Christina, do you think the people who came to tell you that you need to move out,
04:32do you think the rescue operation in that sense was very swift?
04:36Yeah, I do think so, because it was about, I think it was just a random,
04:41like another worker in the building that ran in and was like, hey, we actually need to get out.
04:46So I think we were kind of contemplating what was going on for about 20 seconds.
04:51And then someone came in and was like, we got to go. So it was very, it was very quick, I would say, yeah.
04:59And today, as you're pointing out, things are back to normal as they were.
05:04Yeah, I think I mean, everyone's outside walking in the streets, the streets are less crowded today.
05:10But yesterday it was shoulder to shoulder all the way up and down Sukhumvit, which is where I was.
05:18It was just, it was chaos, honestly, yesterday, everybody was outside, people couldn't,
05:23I couldn't get back into my hotel for about four hours.
05:28It was really crazy, very hectic.
05:32Right, thank you. Thank you, Christina, for speaking with us.
05:35Christina Kaye, who's in Bangkok and was in the basement of a building when the earthquake shook the building
05:41and said that people rushed outside and out on the streets.
05:44Yes, there was utter chaos, but today the situation is a tad bit better, both in Bangkok and in other cities in Thailand.