blue News reader reports from Bangkok "Suddenly everyone rushed out of the building in panic"
F. Stöckler was with his girlfriend in an eight-storey shopping center in Bangkok when the earth shook. He tells blue News about the first few minutes after the earthquake.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- blue News reader reporter F. Stöckler is in Bangkok when the earth shakes.
- He believes it is a terrorist attack when suddenly everyone runs out of the high-rise building where he is staying with his girlfriend in panic.
- Only when he is outside does he learn from friends who write to him that there has been an earthquake.
F. Stöckler from Untervaz wants to buy souvenirs with his girlfriend shortly before departure and therefore visits the MBK Center in Bangkok. He is on the fourth floor of the eight-storey building when it happens.
"Suddenly everyone rushed out of the building in a panic, pushing and shoving to get out as quickly as possible." He didn't feel the tremors himself. "We thought it was a terrorist attack and ran out with everyone else."
The eyewitness suspects that the locals were informed of what had happened faster than he and his girlfriend via an app or personal contacts. "Friends who had already flown home yesterday wrote to us to say that there had been an earthquake."
Alarm sirens only wail half an hour later
The alarm sirens didn't sound until half an hour later, when everyone had long been out on the street, the man from Graubünden continues.
Outside, he then saw that parts of the MBK Center façade had fallen down. He did not see any other damage.
As he talks to blue News on the phone, he takes a cab to the airport. Finding a cab was not easy: "The internet went down, the app you can use to order cabs stopped working and there was a traffic jam on the main roads."
They then went to a side street, where they finally found a cab to take them.
Schoolchildren and hospital patients on the street
"The driver told us that his cab was swaying and that he was pointing in the direction of the collapsed tower block. But I couldn't see anything."
He also did not see any other damage on the journey from the center of Bangkok to the airport. "There are just so many people on the streets. The schoolchildren have left the schools, hospitals are being evacuated."
Despite the chaos, people were calm, taking photos and filming. F. Stöckler from Untervaz doesn't seem to have been affected by the events either. "We're not in shock, we haven't experienced anything bad."