Bangkok felt like a city caught off guard when chaos erupted with earthquake

‘I felt light-headed, like I was unsteady and about to faint’ – Irish teacher (38) recalls moment earthquake was felt at his Bangkok school

An Irish teacher working in Bangkok has recalled the “surreal” moment when the earthquake hit his school and the damage it caused to his 28th-floor apartment.

Bangkok felt like a city caught off guard when chaos erupted with earthquake

Many will no doubt continue to press the government on why there was no emergency alert system, no texts, nothing. Not for hours after, at least.

Scots caught up in earthquake carnage tell of Bangkok chaos after tremor

Angela Jenkins and her husband Douglas, from Lewis in the Western Isles, were in a shopping centre in the Thai capital.

“For the first time in my life, I was afraid to die.” Armando Saccà (photo), 35 years old from Calabria, is still very upset, on vacation in Bangkok with a friend. The tremendous earthquake shock in Burma was also strongly felt in the capital of Thailand. They were in the hotel, on the 34th floor of a skyscraper, in front of the building from which a rooftop pool flooded. “We were getting ready to go out - he says - when I felt my head spinning.…

The disaster is taking proportions after yesterday's earthquake in Myanmar. The death toll has exceeded 1600 and could rise. Many of the over 3400 injured are in serious condition. Meanwhile, new dramatic images and miraculous rescues from the earthquake are emerging. Exclusively, at Observator, a Romanian survivor tells the story of the hell he went through.

Þórður Aðalsteinsson lives on the 30th floor of an apartment building in Bangkok. He was at home with his wife when an earthquake hit Bangkok yesterday, about 40 minutes after the earthquake in Myanmar.