BANGKOK — Rescue teams scrambled Saturday to reach approximately 15 survivors detected beneath the wreckage of a collapsed high-rise construction site in Bangkok, as the clock ticked on their dwindling chances of survival. The building, which crumbled during Friday’s powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake centered in Myanmar, may still contain dozens more trapped workers in what has become a desperate search operation.

Dozens Trapped as Earthquake Topples Bangkok High-Rise in Deadly Collapse

Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office director Suriyachai Rawiwan confirmed that sensors had picked up vital signs from groups of three to seven people buried under mountains of concrete and twisted steel. “We’re trying to get food and water to them through whatever gaps we can find,” Suriyachai told reporters, his face streaked with dust and exhaustion. “But some are trapped three meters deep, and we know we’ve got about 72 hours before…” His voice trailed off, the unspoken deadline hanging heavy in the humid air.

The human toll remains devastatingly unclear. While Deputy Governor Tavida Kamolvej reported 10 confirmed deaths overnight, with 16 injured and 101 still missing, rescue coordinators on site whisper grim estimates of 47 to 100 workers potentially still entombed in the rubble. Operations that paused under cover of darkness resumed at first light, with teams now working round-the-clock shifts using everything from thermal drones to bare hands.

Ongoing search and rescue operations in Bangkok at the collapsed State Audit Office building which was under construction & collapsed due to earthquake on Friday.

71 construction workers and engineers are still missing. #แผ่นดินไหว #Thailand #Bangkok #ตึกถล่ม #earthquake pic.twitter.com/YMK0Fnc369

— Asia News (@asianewsteam) March 29, 2025

Across the shaken capital, Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt mobilized 130 structural engineers to assess buildings citywide for earthquake damage. “We welcome all help,” Chadchart stressed, “but please coordinate through official channels.” His appeal came as aftershocks continued to rattle nerves in a metropolis where thousands spent the night sleeping in parks, too terrified to return to their apartments.

The catastrophe’s epicenter in central Myanmar has already claimed at least 1,002 lives, with entire villages flattened near the city of Monywa. But here in Bangkok, the collapse of one gleaming tower skeleton has exposed vulnerabilities in Thailand’s building safety standards — and sparked anguished questions about whether more could have been done to protect the migrant laborers now fighting for their lives beneath the rubble.

Earthquake leaves more than 1,000 dead, 2,300 injured in Myanmar

As Saturday wore on, families of the missing kept vigil behind police barricades, their faces illuminated by the flashing lights of emergency vehicles. Some clutched photos of loved ones; others simply stared blankly at the destruction, praying for miracles in the wreckage.

-Thailand News (TN)