2 powerful earthquakes rock southeast Asia, hitting Bangkok and Myanmar

Bangkok — Two violent earthquakes rocked Southeast Asia on Friday, causing buildings in the Thai capital Bangkok to sway and prompting evacuations across the city, as well as in neighboring Myanmar.

The U.S. Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ center for geosciences said the first midday temblor to hit Bangkok was at shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), with an epicenter in Myanmar, according to preliminary reports.

A second shaker, with a magnitude of 6.4, shook the area 12 minutes later.

Bangkok police say a high-rise building under construction collapsed when the first quake struck. Possible casualties aren’t yet known.

Police told The Associated Press they were responding to the scene near Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak Market but they had no immediate information on how many workers were on the site at the time of the collapse.

Water from high-rise rooftop pools in Bangkok sloshed over the side as they shook from the first quake, and debris fell from many buildings.

There were no immediate reports of casualties and Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called an emergency meeting to assess the impact of the temblors.

The greater Bangkok area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.

Alarms went off in buildings when the first quake hit around 1:30 p.m., and startled residents were evacuated down staircases of high-rise condominiums and hotels in densely populated central Bangkok.

They remained in the streets, seeking shade from the midday sun in the minutes after the quake.