Scot in Bangkok says ‘blood rushed to his head’ as earthquake struck

A Scottish expat in Bangkok said “blood rushed to his head” as an earthquake shook his apartment building and forced him to evacuate his home.

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake caused widespread damage in Thailand and a state of emergency was declared in Myanmar on Friday, with hundreds feared dead or injured.

Alex MacGregor, a PR consultant who has been living in the Thai capital for the last six months, was working from home and waiting for the delivery of his lunch when the tremors began at around 1.30pm local time.

“I was just waiting for the driver to come with my food and I look in the pool and noticed the water started to kind of lap at the edges… but then it started to get violent,” the 36-year-old, originally from Inverness, told the PA news agency.

“All of a sudden I started feeling faint, like that kind of blood rushing to the head feeling, and I was like: ‘Am I ill here, or what’s going on?’

“Then I looked up the other condo, which is a really high skyscraper and I saw their pool water coming over the sides and that’s when I knew it was an earthquake.

“It’s a weird sensation, you’re seeing a lot of things happen in slow motion around you… I actually went and sat down because I was feeling unsteady on my feet.”

Despite the tremors, Mr MacGregor said people were “remarkably calm” as an alarm went off in his building telling all occupants to evacuate.

“Shortly after I left my condo area to come to a coffee shop… all the shops here in this eastern part of Bangkok were closed, so people were lining the streets,” he said.

“We knew there was going to be an aftershock, so I’ve made my way to an outdoor space and there’s a lot of people just sitting out here working on their laptops generally being chill.

“The Thai people are really friendly people, very chill – the last people that are going to panic in this kind of situation.”

Living in the “fairly residential” On Nut in eastern Bangkok, Mr MacGregor said the worst of the earthquake appeared to have impacted other areas of the city.

On the opposite side of the city, 90 people remain missing and three are confirmed dead after the collapse of a high-rise building under construction near the popular Chatuchak Market.

A British tourist on holiday in Bangkok said she initially thought the shaking was due to effects from the film she was watching.

Mandy Tang, 38, from London, told PA: “I was watching a film called The Red Envelope. It happened to be quite an action-packed scene when the shake happened, so I initially thought it could have been Imax effects.

“I looked around and none of the local audience left their seats. However, my Taiwanese friend insisted it’s an earthquake, so I walked out of the theatre with her, and we met the security guards coming to evacuate us just outside the theatre.

“We could see the doors were opening and closing, all the chairs were shaking.”

Ms Tang said she was trying to get a car back to her hotel, adding: “Basically I’m tired and I’m trying to get back.

“It was quite nerve wracking, I’ve never experienced such a strong shake. It is quite scary.”

Scottish tourist Fraser Morton told AP there was “panic” when the earthquake hit while he was shopping for camera equipment in a Bangkok shopping centre.

“All of a sudden the whole building began to move, immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic,” he said.

“I got outside and then looked up at the building and the whole building was moving, dust and debris, it was pretty intense.”

Issuing a travel warning on Friday, the Foreign Office (FCDO) said the earthquake’s epicentre was in Sagaing region near Mandalay in Myanmar – where a state of emergency has been declared in six regions and states.

A member of a rescue team in Mandalay told the BBC they expect casualties to be “at least in the hundreds”.

“There may be several strong aftershocks,” the FCDO said on its website.

“If you’re in the area or planning to travel there, follow the advice of the local authorities and monitor local media.”