March 28, 2025: Magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Myanmar | CNN (2025)

The death toll from the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck central Myanmar could surpass 10,000, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated on Friday.

The USGS issued a red alert for the estimated fatalities of the quake, indicating “high casualties and extensive damage.”

The country’s military government has reported the deaths of at least 144 people so far, but the number is likely to increase as more rubble is removed and bodies are recovered.

The team behind Season 3 of the HBO drama “The White Lotus,” which is set and filmed in Thailand, posted a statement on social media in support of those impacted by the deadly Myanmar earthquake.

The penultimate episode of the series debuts Sunday night.

HBO and Max, like CNN, are owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

Rescue operations continued into Saturday morning local time in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, as authorities scrambled to find dozens of people thought to be trapped under a collapsed building.

Photographs from the scene in the Chatuchak region show rescue workers dressed in red and orange uniforms gathered around the base of the building, as rescue dogs clamber over rubble in search of the more than 100 people feared trapped.

Video posted online on Saturday morning local time by Thailand’s rescue dog association showed a dog barking at the towering mound of concrete, signaling to its handlers that it had located someone beneath the debris.

As of 10 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) on Friday, at least 10 people had died in the Thai capital due to the quake, according to Deputy Bangkok Governor Tavida Kamolvej.

Earlier, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said that rescue crews were working to free more than 100 people from the building.

Anutin added the collapse was attributed to the failure of the building’s lower columns.

Rescuers work at the site a high-rise building under construction that collapsed in Bangkok, Thailand, early Saturday.

At least 10 people were killed in the Thai capital of Bangkok after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck neighboring Myanmar, according to Tavida Kamolvej, Bangkok’s deputy governor.

In addition to the confirmed fatalities, 16 others were injured and 101 people were missing from three construction sites in the Din Daeng, Bang Sue and Chatuchak districts, as of 10 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET) on Friday, according to Kamolvej.

Authorities in Bangkok are advising residents of two buildings in the city to evacuate after they sustained damage during Friday’s powerful earthquake in neighboring Myanmar.

The two buildings — one in the city’s Chatuchak district, the other in the Phra Khanong district — will be inspected for damage, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said.

The administration added that it had received nearly 1,000 reports of “structural concerns” across the city following the quake and a team of engineers will assess cases based on severity, with three high-risk cases identified so far.

The structural assessments will ramp up on Saturday morning.

In addition, five public parks and six temporary shelters have been opened for residents to seek refuge, with police and city officials being deployed to maintain safety, the administration said.

It’s now Saturday morning and the extent of the casualties is still emerging after a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck war-torn Myanmar and caused chaos in some parts of neighboring Thailand.

Aid groups said communication blackouts and damaged roads are hindering their ability to reach people as crews are searching through the rubble and assessing damage.

Here’s what to know:

Dr. Kyi Minn, national director of World Vision Myanmar, is interviewed on CNN on Friday.

The director of a humanitarian organization in Myanmar said it could take years for some hard-hit areas to rebuild after being struck by the 7.7-magnitude earthquake.

“I think it would take even months and maybe some years, because the infrastructure is damaged,” said Dr. Kyi Minn, national director of World Vision Myanmar.

Minn is in Yangon but has been able to communicate with staff in the central city of Mandalay, who told him about collapsed buildings and injured people. He also said the highway from Yangon to Mandalay is “severely damaged” and the air control tower in the military-built capital of Naypyidaw has also collapsed.

The 7.7-magnitude Myanmar earthquake caused roaring waves at a pool terrace hundreds of miles away atop a high-rise building in Bangkok, Thailand.

A child can be heard crying as the water hits windows and flows down a set of stairs in the video below, which was posted on social media.

Earthquake causes large waves at a pool terrace in Bangkok

00:34 - Source: CNN

Earthquake causes large waves at a pool terrace in Bangkok

00:34

Medecins Sans Frontieres is working to mobilize teams to areas in Myanmar impacted by the 7.7 magnitude earthquake, but conditions are making travel and communication difficult, the humanitarian organization’s head of mission in the country said.

Federica Franco said in an audio message that the “situation is very complicated” for teams “because there are significant communication blackouts in some of the hardest-hit areas, and this is due to the ongoing conflict.”

Myanmar is already reeling from four years of civil war sparked by a bloody and economically destructive military coup, which has seen junta forces battle rebel groups across the country.

On top of communication blackouts, Franco said key roads have been damaged, including a highway that goes to Mandalay, the epicenter of the earthquake.

“We had a team on the road earlier today, but they had to come back. Some of the airports are also closed,” Franco said.

The mission head said the priority for MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, is to get an “emergency care team” to people who need it.

Parts of Thailand’s capital were brought to a standstill Friday evening after a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake in neighboring Myanmar disrupted the city’s key transport links.

Streams of stationary cars and motorbikes could be seen at the Ratchaprasong intersection in central Bangkok after the quake caused tremors across the country, as well as in some Chinese provinces.

Though busy roads are not an uncommon sight in the Thai capital, the popular BTS Skytrain service announced on X that it was temporarily shutting down to allow for safety inspections.

Two lines have since resumed service, and others will open Saturday morning, the service said.

Bella Pawita Sunthornpong appears on CNN on Friday.

One woman who lives in Bangkok said she was on the 33rd floor of her apartment building when a powerful earthquake struck neighboring Myanmar.

She grabbed her phone and started running down from the 33rd floor, telling others around her to run too. She said as she was making her way out of the building, ceiling paint was falling and everything was still swaying.

“I was thinking, you know, whatever happened, I just need to keep running until I hit the ground,” Pawita Sunthornpong said.

Also in Bangkok, which is hundreds of miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, a building that was under construction in the city collapsed, killing several people. Pawita Sunthornpong said when she made it outside, there was a lot of fear and confusion, with people looking at her building wondering, “Is this going to crumble?”

Pawita Sunthornpong, who went to stay outside of the city, said many of her friends don’t feel safe going back to their apartments: “There’s a lot of cracks everywhere, so people are still in a little bit of fear tonight.”

The scene at the sitee of a building that collapsed after a strong earthquake struck central Myanmar on Friday, in Bangkok, Thailand.

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Myanmar was the most powerful the country has seen in more than 100 years.

See how it stacks up with others in the region:

A British tourist vacationing in Bangkok at the time of Friday’s powerful earthquake in neighboring Myanmar said she initially thought the tremors were because of effects from a film she was watching at a theater.

“I was watching a film called ‘The Red Envelope.’ It happened to be quite an action-packed scene when the shake happened, so I initially thought it could have been IMAX effects,” Mandy Tang, a 38-year-old from London, told Britain’s PA Media news agency.

Following Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar, tremors were felt across Thailand as well as in nearby Chinese provinces.

It could be weeks before the full extent of the destruction in Myanmar is known following Friday’s earthquake, but the impact on the country is likely to be “severe,” according to the International Rescue Committee’s Myanmar director.

The limited amount of available information is partly due to communication lines being down and transportation being disrupted, Mohamed Riyas said in a statement.

The rescue chief added that the “damage to infrastructure and homes, loss of life, and injuries sustained by communities affected should not be underestimated.”

It is also extremely difficult to gather reliable information about issues affecting Myanmar, with the country’s military regularly cutting communications in conflict zones.

People drive on a motorbike past a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar on Friday.

Myanmar’s ongoing civil war makes getting a full picture of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake extremely difficult, a country director for an international non-governmental organization (NGO) operating there told CNN.

“Almost 80% of the country is outside of the control (of the military), and then they are controlled by different ethnic armed groups,” she said. “They’re controlled by the PDF (People’s Defense Force) under the NUG (National Unity Government), so you can’t have a full picture of what is going on.”

She added that the NGO is still trying to obtain information from heavily-affected cities where it doesn’t have a staff presence, such as Sagaing or Mandalay.

Her organization’s local offices are sending her reports, but internet connectivity in Myanmar is bad “on a good day,” she said. The earthquake only complicates matters further, causing a full blackout and cutting off communication with her staff for the first few hours after the quake.

A typical “response would be around emergency food, gas assistance or shelter,” she said. “But that is very difficult in the normal situation for response in Myanmar. On top of it, you have a disaster. To operate within the context where access is so complicated, it’s not an easy one.”

The quake is “further weakening the resilience of communities” in a country with millions of internally displaced people.

“With the earthquake, it just adds to the already difficult situation,” she said. The coming days would focus on putting a response plan together and coordinating with other NGOs and local groups.

The US embassy in Myanmar said it is suspending “non-emergency consular services” in the wake of Friday’s earthquake that hit the heart of the country.

“We are suspending non-emergency consular services, including visa services, while continuing American Citizen Services,” the embassy posted on X, adding that these changes were made to “better assist American citizens” following the quake.

The embassy said that two additional centers — the American Center Yangon and Jefferson Center Mandalay — are also closed to the public.

President Donald Trump speaks to the press at the White House on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump said the United States will help Myanmar after an earthquake hit near the country’s second-largest city, killing more than 140 people.

It comes after the leader of Myanmar’s ruling military junta, Min Aung Hlaing, made a rare call for help from the international community.

Min Aung Hlaing is the subject of a request for an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, and his military junta rarely cooperates with other nations.

Additionally, Myanmar is grappling with the Trump administration’s move to cut about $52 million in USAID funding, according to a new analysis from the think tank Center for Global Development. International organizations say the devastation from the major earthquake on Friday will be compounded by the loss of aid.

Myanmar was hit by a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake on Friday, with tremors felt across Thailand as well as in nearby Chinese provinces. At least 144 people were killed in the quake, and officials warn the number of casualties is likely to rise.

Scroll through the photos below to see what it looks like on the ground in Myanmar and Thailand. You can see more photos in our gallery.

A person in Bangkok takes a photo Friday at the site of a high-rise building that was under construction and collapsed during the earthquake.

Medical workers treat an earthquake survivor at a hospital compound in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on Friday, March 28.

People inspect the debris of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Friday,.

A girl cries in Bangkok on Friday.

Motorists drive past a damaged building in Mandalay on Friday.

Rescue workers walk through the site of a collapsed construction building in Bangkok on Friday.

At least 153 people have so far been confirmed dead following Friday’s powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck war-torn Myanmar and caused chaos in some parts of neighboring Thailand — but the extent of the casualties is still emerging.

In Myanmar, at least 144 people have been killed and more than 730 were injured in the earthquake, according to the head of the country’s military government.

Min Aung Hlaing said most of the confirmed deaths were in the military-built capital of Naypyidaw, in central Myanmar, but little is known about the extent of the damage in rural areas, with electricity and internet access down in parts of the country.

In Thailand, at least eight people were killed after a building collapsed in the country’s capital Bangkok after the quake hit, according to Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.

The deputy prime minister added that there is a possibility that more bodies will be found in the rubble of the building, with more than 100 trapped and rescue teams due to work throughout the night.

Another death was confirmed after a crane collapsed elsewhere in the city.