The death toll in Thailand from Friday's powerful earthquake in Myanmar has reached 17 on Sunday, with 77 people missing, and a Bangkok-Nonthaburi monorail remained halted due to a dislocated power rail.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration reported 17 fatalities and 32 injured people on Sunday morning.
The death toll included 10 bodies at the collapsed site of the new State Audit Office compound in Chatuchak district, Bangkok. The 10th body was retrieved from the debris late Saturday night. Eight people were injured and 77 others were missing at the collapse site of the 30-storey building.
Seven other fatalities happened elsewhere, mostly at condominium construction sites and including collapsed cranes. Three people were injured in a falling elevator in the Silom area.
Search and rescue operations continued at the collapsed headquarters of the State Audit Office under construction in Chatuchak district on Sunday. Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt said City Hall received a building-scanning device from Israel to support the mission.
The removal of debris near the Din Daeng expressway ramp was 80% completed. If the task is not finished in time, the City Hall might announce a work-from-home measure on Monday, he said.
Electric railways resumed operations except the Bangkok-Nonthaburi Pink Line monorail as its power rail was dislocated in Min Buri district, Bangkok.
City Hall said it had received about 9,500 reports on building damage through the Traffy Fondue app and volunteer engineers were deployed to check the buildings.
The Earthquake Observation Division reported that as of noon Sunday there were 166 aftershocks after the 8.2-magnitude Myanmar quake at 1.20pm last Friday, including 159 with magnitudes of 1.0-4.9 on the Richter Scale. There was one aftershock with 7.1 magnitude in Myanmar at 1.32pm on Friday.
The division also reported a 5.3-magnitude earthquake 56 kilometres deep in northern Sumatra, 401 kilometres southwest of Phuket, at 9.58am Sunday Thailand time. The division said the quake was not related to the Myanmar earthquake last Friday, and there was no impact on Thailand nor a tsunami warning.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry reported that 55 Thai soldiers left for Mandalay, Naypyitaw and Yangon on Sunday morning to give humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
