Bangkok earthquake: State of emergency declared, airport shut, buildings evacuated

India Today

A state of emergency has been declared in Bangkok following a significant earthquake. The airport has been shut down, and high-rise buildings have been evacuated.

Transcript

00:00So, a state of emergency was declared.

00:02The Prime Minister was in a meeting with top cabinet members and administration to see

00:08what help was required and had to be given to people.

00:12Nan Rattikarn is a climate activist who joins us from Bangkok.

00:16Rudra Kumar is a local again who joins us from Bangkok.

00:19And Rudra, if I could ask you first, there was a state of emergency that was declared.

00:24We were also told that the airport was shut.

00:27Is the airport operational now or remains shut?

00:31Yes.

00:32Hello.

00:33Yes, can you hear me?

00:36Yeah, yeah, I can hear you.

00:40During this time, like everything shut down in Bangkok, you know, and people also cannot

00:46come inside the building.

00:48They are waiting around to check that the building is safe now.

00:53And yeah, we still didn't take any staff outside from our building and we are waiting.

01:01So you're still waiting to enter buildings.

01:03The administration has had asked everybody to come out of their homes.

01:08Several buildings were declared unsafe.

01:10So will people be staying out tonight?

01:13Is there food available?

01:14Are medicines available?

01:16Is that a problem?

01:17Yeah.

01:18During this time, mostly like they still come to check the building that is safe enough

01:25or not.

01:26And we are not allowed to use the elevator.

01:28And as you know, that we have a lot of high-rise buildings and people like have to wait.

01:33They just allow like five people or two people, but come with the security to walk up there

01:39to get the staff.

01:41And now from here, yeah, four hours already, they still have to check about their staff

01:47to come back home.

01:48Okay.

01:49Yeah.

01:50And I saw a traffic jam here.

01:52There's a massive traffic jam.

01:54Is the airport now open?

01:56Is the airport now open or does the airport remain in lockdown?

02:00Is the airport still closed?

02:04I'm not sure so much, but in the beginning, like they said, it's still closed.

02:08But what I can see here from the BTS station, the SkyTrain, it's still closed.

02:13And they don't know like when they will open again.

02:16They said, we have to wait until they are allowed again.

02:21Okay.

02:22Naam, stay with me.

02:23Stay with me for a moment.

02:24I want to bring in Rudra Kumar, who also joins us on the show.

02:28Rudra, what can you tell us?

02:30Where are you?

02:31Are people around you safe?

02:33Are aftershocks still being felt?

02:36Currently, I'm in my home area and it's kind of a low-rising area.

02:44So like there's not many high buildings and stuff.

02:46So people here are pretty calm about it.

02:48They're pretty chill.

02:49But my school's in an area with a lot of high-rise buildings.

02:54So like there was a lot of chaos definitely.

02:57And for the aftershocks, there's been many news coming in fake, real, I don't know.

03:02But as of now, I haven't experienced any aftershock after the actual earthquake.

03:07So I think that's that.

03:10And is there electricity?

03:12Is the airport still shut?

03:15Because some tourists were very scared in the morning.

03:17They wanted to go back to their home countries.

03:21Are they able to do that?

03:23Definitely, I'm not sure about the airport.

03:27I'm sure about some stuff in my area that's shut down, like some apartments that are high-rise

03:31buildings.

03:32People are not allowed to enter.

03:34So they have to stay away for the night, especially in high-rise buildings that are situated right

03:40next to the Chaupaiya River.

03:42There's people who cannot go in those buildings because they're not allowed to.

03:46I'm not really sure about the airport.

03:47But yes, I'm sure about the fact that there were many people who wanted to go home.

03:51And many of my friends also are saying that they want to go home to another country to

03:56flee the country because there's many aftershock-like scares that maybe it's tomorrow, maybe it's

04:01today.

04:04There was also a tsunami apprehension.

04:07Have you heard anything about that?

04:09Were people asked to move away from the sea?

04:14Or were they just bits of information that were being shared on social media and not

04:19officially?

04:22I don't think it's officially been shared on any news channel.

04:25But yes, definitely there's been a lot of stuff spreading about tsunamis on social media

04:30and I've heard about it.

04:33People are just fearing that maybe the tsunami from back then in Phuket might come back.

04:38So it's just scares amongst people.

04:42Maybe there might be a tsunami, maybe there might not be.

04:44But geographically, we shouldn't rule out the possibility of a tsunami.

04:48Okay.

04:49Nan, if you can hear me, do people have access to food and water outside their homes if they're

04:57not being permitted to go in?

05:00Yeah, we're still waiting and now it seems like somewhere burning already with the building.

05:07You see like a...

05:11Okay.

05:12Yeah.

05:13We're looking at massive traffic jams behind you.

05:17A lot of people are there on the streets.

05:19Can you walk around?

05:20Nan, can you walk around and show us what's happening?

05:23Okay.

05:24I can show you like what's happening around here.

05:30And also they have like a prevention department and also like many workers from the building

05:37construction come back home, but yeah, still traffic jam.

05:41And I am in the alley station, it's the SkyTrain station.

05:47It's still closed, no SkyTrain operate now, no.

05:53And people still waiting here, you see, a lot here.

05:57Oh, so everybody's out on the streets.

05:59Yeah.

06:00Will you also, will you and your friends and family, I hope everyone is safe, will you

06:05be out on the streets tonight?

06:08We don't know yet because they don't allow us to pick the stuff.

06:12Yeah.

06:13Okay.

06:14And are shops now open or are shops and markets all shut?

06:21Some shops are open, some shops already, but what my parents and my colleagues said,

06:29the best place we should move out from Bangkok because Bangkok is so much high-rise building

06:34here.

06:35Better we should like leave some open space and yeah, like far away from the high-rise

06:40building in Bangkok.

06:42Okay.

06:43Nan, you stay safe, Rudra stay safe.

06:46I will come back to both of you for more and hope you're able to access your homes

06:53and are in a safe environment as quickly as possible.

06:58Many thanks for joining me here on India Today.

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