ASEANEWS HEADLINE: NATURAL DISASTER | Earthquake in Bangkok: The death toll increased to 10.

BANGKOK, Thailand — A unilateral partial ceasefire to facilitate earthquake relief efforts was announced on Saturday by Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, which coordinates the popular struggle against the ruling military. The country’s death toll from the disaster soared to 1,644.

The figure was a sharp rise compared to the 1,002 announced just hours earlier, highlighting the difficulty of confirming casualties over a widespread region and the likelihood that the numbers will continue to grow from Friday’s 7.7 magnitude quake. The number of injured increased to 3,408, while the missing figure rose to 139.

Death toll also rises in Thailand

In neighboring Thailand, the death toll increased to 10. The quake rocked the greater Bangkok area, home to around 17 million people, and other parts of the country. Many places in the north reported damage, but the only casualties were reported in Bangkok, the capital.

READ: Sagaing Fault fears renewed over deadly Myanmar quake; SE Asia on alert

Nine of the fatalities were at the site of the collapsed high-rise under construction near Bangkok’s Chatuchak market, while 78 people were still unaccounted for.

On Saturday, more heavy equipment was brought in to move the tons of rubble, but hope was fading among friends and relatives.

“I was praying that that they had survived, but when I got here and saw the ruin — where could they be? said 45-year-old Naruemol Thonglek, sobbing as she awaited news about her partner, who is from Myanmar, and five friends who worked at the site.

Bangkok building collapse

SHOVEL AND SEARCH Machinery is used to remove debris from the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on March 29, 2025, a day after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand. Rescuers dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings on March 29 in a desperate search for survivors after a huge earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand, killing more than 150 people. Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA/AFP

Across the border in Bangkok, rescuers worked through the night searching for survivors trapped when a 30-story skyscraper under construction collapsed, reduced in seconds to a pile of rubble and twisted metal by the force of the shaking.

Bangkok Gov. Chadchart Sittipunt said about 10 people had been confirmed killed across the city, most in the skyscraper collapse.

But up to 100 workers were still unaccounted for at the building, close to the Chatuchak weekend market that is a magnet for tourists.

“We are doing our best with the resources we have because every life matters,” Chadchart told reporters at the scene.

Thermal imaging drones were deployed to seek signs of life in the rubble, and authorities believe they have seen indications from at least 15 people.

Bangkok city authorities said they will deploy more than 100 engineers to inspect buildings for safety after receiving over 2,000 reports of damage.

Up to 400 people were forced to spend the night in the open air in city parks as their homes were not safe to return to, Chadchart said.

While there was no widespread destruction in Bangkok, the shaking brought some dramatic images of rooftop swimming pools sloshing their contents down the side of many of the city’s towering apartment blocks and hotels.

Even hospitals were evacuated, with one woman delivering her baby outdoors after being moved from a hospital building. A surgeon also continued to operate on a patient after evacuating, completing the operation outside, a spokesman said.

Earthquakes are rare in Bangkok, but relatively common in Myanmar. The country sits on the Sagaing Fault, a major north-south fault that separates the India plate and the Sunda plate.

Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said it appears a 200-kilometer section of the fault ruptured for just over a minute, with a slip of up to 5 meters in places, causing intense ground shaking in an area where most of the population lives in buildings constructed of timber and unreinforced brick masonry.

“When you have a large earthquake in an area where there are over a million people, many of them living in vulnerable buildings, the consequences can often be disastrous,” he said in a statement.

“From initial reports, that seems likely to be the case here.”AP