Quebec man says he’s lucky to be alive after Thailand and Myanmar rocked by earthquake

Cloud of dust and debris captured after high-rise toppled from earthquake

A Quebec man says he is lucky to be alive after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand on Friday.

Timmy Pilon was at his home in Bangkok on the second floor when he started to suddenly feel dizzy. He thought, for a second, he was having a stroke, but then when he got up from his chair he noticed the building was really “rocking.”

“I fell to the ground. I thought I was going to die. It was really terrifying,” he said in an interview with Noovo Info.

At least 140 people have died in Myanmar but officials say the death toll will likely rise in the coming days. About 730 others were injured.

In Thailand, at least 10 people have died and 16 were injured. More than 100 are missing.

Pilon said he heard people screaming everywhere and then headed upstairs to help elderly people who had difficulty moving. Once outside, he took refuge under a nearby bridge but said he didn’t feel completely safe as he was surrounded by highrises that he feared could collapse.

A dramatic video captured the moment a 33-storey highrise under construction in Bangkok crumbled to the ground, sending a massive cloud of dust and debris into the air.

“Everyone was in the streets, everywhere was jammed. There are parts of roads and motorways that have collapsed, but the buildings seem to have held up,” Pilon told Noovo Info.

“The residents [of my building] are mainly concerned about safety, whether the structure of the building is going to hold up.”

He wrote on his Facebook account that he was told his building had a preliminary inspection and that it was deemed safe.

Deputy Prime Minister Suriya Juangroongruangk called the earthquake “a great tragedy,” according to The Associated Press.

An aftershock measuring 6.4 magnitude rocked Myanmar after the initial midday quake.

In Mandalay, the earthquake reportedly brought down multiple buildings, including one of the city’s largest monasteries.

The U.S. Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to preliminary reports. Shallower earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

With files from Noovo Info and The Associated Press