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.
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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.