Trembling with fear

Bangkok workers scramble to safety after tremors from Chinese quake

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake in China was felt in downtown Bangkok yesterday afternoon, causing people in high-rise buildings to run for safety.

The quake - centred in Sichuan province, 2,000 kilometres away from Bangkok - could be felt by workers and residents on Sathorn, Silom, Sukhumvit and Rama III roads. The buildings' management evacuated tenants for fear of aftershocks.

Meanwhile, the Thai consular office in Chengdu has not been able to reach 80 Thais living there, due to communication problems, the Department of Information said yesterday.

It is unlikely that any of them, mostly students, would be affected by the earthquake, it said. 

In Bangkok, Siriporn Wattanawongvisit, 24, who works on the 19th floor of the 60-storey Empire Tower on Sathorn Road, said she felt the floor and everything around her shaking at about 2pm and co-workers screamed it was an earthquake.

About 15 minutes later, the building's alarm rang and everyone rushed to the ground floor through the fire escape.

They waited in front of the building for an hour before the building management said it was safe to return to work.

Siriporn said the tremors were more severe than in the past

because everyone felt them.

A worker whose office is on the fifth floor of the Ploenchit Centre building on Sukhumvit Road said he felt dizzy and heard a noise from the ceiling at about 1.40pm. Realising it was an earthquake, he and his colleagues rushed outside.

Another female worker, whose office is near the top of a 36-storey high-rise in the Rama III area, said she felt the floor move at about 2pm and felt faint for about a minute. When someone told her it was an earthquake, she hurriedly packed up her things and rushed downstairs with her co-workers.

Meteorological Department chief Supareuk Tansriratana-wong said the quake struck at 2.28pm and was felt in cities hundreds of kilometres away, including high-rise buildings in Taiwan and Hanoi, Vietnam.

XTRA

Tremors felt in thailand since last year

>> April 22, 2007 - 5.4 on Richter scale, epicentre near Chiang Rai's Wiang Pa Pao district, no damage reported.

>> April 27, 2007 - 6.1 in magnitude, epicentre near Sumatra, six southern provinces affected.

>> May 15, 2007 - 6.1 in magnitude, epicentre in Laos, tremor felt by occupants in Bangkok's high-rise buildings and in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, where a historic pagoda collapsed.

>> June 19, 2007 - 4.5 in magnitude size, epicentre in Chiang Mai's Mae Rim, no damage reported

>> September 12, 2007 - An undersea quake of a 7.9 magnitude near Sumatra, tremor felt in Bangkok and coastal areas on the Andaman Sea, no damage reported.

>> February 20, 2008 - 7.6 in magnitude, epicentre north of Sumatra, tremor felt by occupants in Bangkok's high-rise buildings and in coastal areas on the Andaman Sea.

>> May 12, 2008 - 7.8 in magnitude, epicentre in China's Sichuan province, tremor felt by occupants in Bangkok's high-rise buildings along Sathorn, Silom, Sukhumvit and Rama III roads.