NDTV Exclusive: Over 300, Not 74, Workers Trapped Under Bangkok Skyscraper Rubble, Sources Say

Arun Jain,


Bangkok:

Signs of life were detected in the ruins of the 30-story skyscraper that collapsed in Bangkok following the deadly 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck neighboring Myanmar last week. According to official figures, as many as 74 people are feared to be still buried in the rubble, however, sources told NDTV that the number can be as high as 300 to 400.

So far, 13 bodies have been pulled out from the rubble of the unfinished tower, which was being built for Thailand’s State Audit Office by a Chinese company and a Thai construction firm. Rescuers were continuing search and rescue efforts on Tuesday to find people trapped three days after a massive quake in Southeast Asia that killed at least 2,000.

Officials and locals, who did not wish to be named, told NDTV that most of the construction workers buried under the debris are from neighbouring Myanmar, which has been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked when the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in 2021.

“At least 50-60 people trapped in the rubble are Burmese. Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in Asia, and a lot of workers come to  Bangkok for menial jobs,” they said.

Meanwhile, Thai authorities have started investigating a Chinese-backed company over the collapse of the skyscraper, the only Bangkok building to completely crumble by the massive tremors. Thailand’s anti-corruption watchdog had earlier flagged to authorities irregularities it found in the construction of the building before it collapsed.

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A Reuters report said that tests have found that the materials gathered at the site indicated the presence of substandard steel among the wreckage, which has been sent for further analysis. A report on this is expected to arrive this week.

Construction of the building began in 2020 and is being carried out by a joint venture between Italian Thai Development PCL and China Railway Number 10 (Thailand) Ltd, a local unit of China’s state-owned China Railway Group.

The construction has been on a halt for a long time and restarted recently. The government had threatened to cancel the project in January due to delays and potential corner-cutting.

Thai police on Sunday detained four Chinese nationals, who were employed by the construction company, trying to remove important documents from their office at the collapse site.

Rescue Efforts Underway

Scanning machines and sniffer dogs have been deployed at the unfinished skyscraper, and Bangkok’s Deputy Governor Tavida Kamolvej said rescuers were urgently working out how to access an area where signs of life had been detected, three days on from the quake.

Realistic chances of survival diminish after 72 hours, she said, adding: “We have to speed up. We’re not going to stop even after 72 hours.”

In central Myanmar, rescuers freed four people, including a pregnant woman and a girl, from collapsed buildings in the city of Mandalay near the epicentre of Friday’s earthquake.



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