‘Emergency situation’: Indian passengers arrive at Kolkata airport from Bangkok after quake

KOLKATA: Myanmar was jolted with a deadly earthquake of 7.2 magnitude on Friday. The tremors were also felt in Thailand, which caused structural damage and panic.

Indian tourists form a significant chunk of visitors in Thailand. However, as soon as the deadly effects of the quake were felt in the country, they started to return to India.

On Friday night, passengers started arriving back in India at the Kolkata airport from Bangkok. A passenger named Ranjan Banerjee opened up about his experience and explained the current situation in Bangkok. He said that the current situation was normal, but when the quake was felt, malls and offices were evacuated.

“The situation is normal right now, but when it happened, there was an emergency situation. Malls and offices were evacuated. The Metro rail system was shut…”, Ranjan Banerjee said.

Another passenger, Safdar, who was coming from Bangkok, said that he saw the skyscrapers shaking and water coming out of the infinity pool. He stated that due to the earthquake, public transport was shut down for a few hours.

“I was on the road at that time. I saw some skyscrapers shaking. There was water coming out of an infinity pool. People were scared that the building might collapse, but nothing like that happened. Public transport were shut for some hours…”, Safdar said.

Sanjiv Dutta, who returned from Bangkok on Friday night, said that his bed was shaking when the earthquake took place. As he woke up, he said that the buildings were shaking and the people were running in panic.

“My bed started shaking when the earthquake took place. After I woke up, I saw that the building was shaking. Later, I saw people running in panic. I came to the ground floor from the seventh floor and waited there for some time. There was huge traffic. It took 5-6 hours to cover 30 kilometres…” (ANI)