Old cracks alarm Bangkok, evacuation of buildings

Panicked workers poured out of buildings into the streets of Bangkok on Monday morning after reports of vibrations and cracks being discovered in the buildings, but the scare was later deemed a false alarm.

City engineers later said the cracks were not new, they had developed during a series of quakes on Friday that were centred in Myanmar, and the buildings were safe.

The evacuations happened around 10am. Premises evacuated include Building A of the Government Complex on Chaeng Watthana Rd, the Ministry of Labour in Din Daeng district and court buildings on Ratchadaphisek Road.

Those expelled included those at the headquarters of Government Housing Bank in Huai Khwang district, the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek and the Social Security Office in Din Daeng.

The Revenue Department instructed personnel at its headquarters in Phaya Thai district to work from home. Taksin Hospital in the Klong San district and skyscrapers on Silom Road and Vibhavadi Rangsit Road were also evacuated.

Sabeeda Thaised, the deputy interior minister, said later at the Government Complex that public works engineers had inspected the building structures there and deemed them safe for workers.

There were 15 aftershocks on Monday morning in Myanmar but they were small and had no effect on Thailand, she said. They featured two of 3.7 magnitude, at 9.29am and, 10. 05am, as per the Meteorological Department.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said the department had reported no affect on Thailand by the aftershocks in Myanmar. She added the cracks reported in buildings in Bangkok were not a new phenomenon. They surfaced during the earthquake on Friday.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt sought to calm fears. He said there were reports of cracks seen and vibrations felt in approximately 20 buildings in the capital on Monday morning. But the cracks had happened Friday.

Folks were already on edge after Friday’s earthquake damage, and were spooked when they noticed the old cracks.

“People re-entered many buildings… the situation [has] returned to normal. People may be overly concerned,” the governor of Bangkok said.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand said its building was still safe, that trading continued as normal and there was no order to evacuate.

The SET’s public relations personnel, reached by telephone, said some employees left the SET building on Monday morning because workers in some office buildings near the SET building had evacuated their offices, but insisted that SET management did not issue an evacuation order.

People had felt some vibrations on the 17th floor of its Building 2 at the Government Housing Bank’s headquarters compound at 10.38am on Monday, so the staff and clients were evacuated, the bank said. Engineers subsequently performed safety checks and its headquarters had already returned to service.