BANGKOK — The grim recovery operation at Bangkok’s collapsed State Audit Office building entered its fourth day Tuesday, with two more bodies pulled from the wreckage Monday afternoon—pushing the confirmed death toll to 13—even as authorities insist signs of life still flicker beneath the mountain of concrete and twisted steel.

False Earthquake Alarms Spark Chaos in Bangkok as Officials Urge Calm

The latest victims, discovered near what remained of the building’s elevator shafts, were rushed to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification, their bodies joining the growing line of casualties from Friday’s catastrophic earthquake. Yet with 77 workers still unaccounted for, Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt refused to abandon hope, even as the crucial 72-hour survival window closed.

“We’re now concentrating on Zones B and C, where elevator shafts and fire escapes might have created survivable voids,” Chadchart told exhausted rescue teams, his shirt caked in dust. Nearby, thermal drones buzzed over the unstable rubble while sniffer dogs circled a debris pile that officials estimate totals a staggering 50,000 cubic meters—enough to fill 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The painstaking work unfolds in brutal shifts: Eight-person teams rotate every 20 minutes in the sweltering heat, their progress slowed by the need to meticulously document each piece of removed material—all technically still property of the State Audit Office. Nearby, a railway-owned lot has been converted into a forensic staging area where cranes deposit truckloads of debris for inspection.

“The world thinks this is slow, but imagine defusing a bomb while people are still trapped inside,” said Deputy Governor Tavida Kamolvej, watching as a Singaporean rescue specialist wriggled into a newly discovered crevice with a medical kit.

Thailand’s Songkran Festival to Proceed Unshaken After Earthquake

As night fell Monday, floodlights illuminated the eerie scene—a stark contrast to the usual glow of Bangkok’s skyline. Behind police barricades, relatives of the missing clutched photos of loved ones, their faces mirroring the anguish of a city that has traded Songkran festival preparations for a vigil no one planned to keep.

-Thailand News (TN) / Photo: Bangkok Community Help Foundation