This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Death toll estimated to be in the thousands

A catastrophic 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, on Friday, leaving behind a landscape of rubble from collapsed buildings and a death toll feared to be in the thousands.

The quake, also was felt in Thailand and China, was measured by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Officials in nearby Naypyidaw hospital declared their area to be a "mass casualty area."

"I haven't seen (something) like this before. We are trying to handle the situation. I'm so exhausted now," a physician on duty explained the AFP.

Ian Main, a professor in seismology at the University of Edinburgh, told the Daily Mail, "The damage is likely to be very severe near the epicenter- based on the estimated intensity of ground shaking above, and maps of population density and vulnerability of buildings.

"The USGS 'PAGER' forecast loss is, sadly, most likely to be in the range 10,000-100,000 fatalities," he said.

A 30-story building under construction in Bangkok collapsed.

Reports of fatalities were trickling in and hundreds of people were missing.

"I heard people calling for help, saying 'help me,'" Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bang Sue district, told AFP.
"I fear many lives have been lost. We have never experienced an earthquake with such a devastating impact before."

The quake struck about 1:30 p.m. local time.

Kelly Rhodes, a tourist on Bangkok, told MailOnline of being evacuated 24 flights of steps down.

Water splashed out and cascaded down the sides of highrises with rooftop pools.

"All of a sudden the whole building began to move, immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic," Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, told the Daily Mail. "I just started walking calmly at first but then the building started really moving, yeah, a lot of screaming, a lot of panic, people running the wrong way down the escalators, lots of banging and crashing inside the mall."

Rows of people were lined up at emergency rooms.

The Red Cross issued a warning about the threat that remained to large dams in the area, offering the potential for major flooding.