By Lobsang DS Subirana
Bangkok, (EFE).- Authorities in Thailand continued working through the night and into Thursday after cries for help were allegedly heard from under the rubble, six days after a powerful earthquake in Myanmar felled a 30-story Bangkok building that killed at least 15 people.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said rescuers had located potential survivors among the 72 missing people at about 10pm local time (3pm GMT) Wednesday in a pocket among the wreckage and were working to find them.
“One team entered a cavity, shouted, and heard a faint response, which was understood to be the voice of a woman (…) This brought a glimmer of hope,” he said, adding that there was still a lot of work ahead.
Public broadcaster Thai PBS said workers were told to cease moving and making noise for a 10-minute period during which they checked for vital signs under the debris.
“We then used a scanner and found what seemed like a signal from a body, so we lowered a sonar device. We instructed that if anyone was still alive, they should knock, and we heard a response,” Chadchart added.
This raises the slim chance of finding some of the missing construction workers alive after they became trapped following the Friday magnitude-7.7 earthquake that devastated Mandalay, Myanmar, where the death toll rose Thursday to 3,085. The incident injured at least 4,639 and has left 373 unaccounted for across a landscape of devastation throughout the city of 1.6 million people.
Twenty two people were killed in total throughout Thailand, which felt the tremors countrywide and where 34 people suffered injuries.
‘A small hope’
Authorities were rushing to remove large slabs from “Zone B” and “Zone C” of the designated disaster zone, where they said people could potentially be trapped together in a cavity beneath what is believed to have been a fire shaft.
They were ordered to use more precise tools to probe through the rubble and workers were taking turns to enter the aperture and continue the search, though they had not found anyone as of publication time.
“We have set a goal to stop using heavy machinery until 1pm (Thursday), and there will be other search teams going in as well,” Chadchart said.
As of Thursday morning, Chadchart, who has insisted on continuing the rescue mission despite the critical survival window elapsing Monday afternoon, has been at the site daily since Friday, among local and international rescue teams, as well as K-9 sniffer dog units.
“We need to believe there are survivors. Right now, it is still a rescue operation, which is focused on saving lives. In life-saving operations, there is a 72-hour guideline, but there are many cases where people can survive up to five or six days,” he said Wednesday.
He began a Facebook live stream late in the evening and past midnight Thursday with the caption “A small hope” after information emerged that there could be signs of life under the wreckage of the high-rise State Audit Office, which was under construction when it gave way.
Construction firm probed, Chinese nationals sentenced
The interior ministry conducted an initial investigation Tuesday of materials used for construction and found two types of steel (of 20 millimeters and 32 millimeters) did not meet national safety standards.
The substandard products came from a specific manufacturer which had already been identified for review as early as December.
Authorities said they would consider whether this warrants revoking the manufacturer’s license and form a fact-finding commission to continue the investigation. The project was being carried out together with a Chinese contractor.
Thai PBS reported Thursday that four Chinese nationals had been given a one-month suspended prison sentence and fined THB3,000 (about $87) after they were seen removing files pertaining to the structure’s construction shortly after the tragedy.
Footage and images emerged of the individuals carrying piles of dossiers out of the area, causing outrage online. Access to the site is restricted under Thai law as per the country’s 2007 Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act.
The state broadcaster said Wednesday that Bangkok residents had filed some 15,500 reports of damaged buildings since Friday.
The government said it plans to continue inspecting thousands of structures, with some 400 that have taken place so far, resulting in the evacuation of two buildings deemed unsafe.
Chadchart said during an interview that the city’s buildings – with dozens of modern skyscrapers – generally meet high safety standards. He added that some cracks were documented after the earthquake and are being repaired, ruling out any risk to people.
Meanwhile, he remained cautiously optimistic about the situation in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district, site of the felled audit office.
“We remain hopeful,” he said. “But don’t want to raise our hopes too high.” EFE
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