Two construction workers were confirmed dead at a Bangkok building collapse on the afternoon of Friday March 28 with the number later rising to six with a further 100 still missing according to the BBC citing local authorities. More fatalities were expected according to sources on the ground, and some reports are now suggesting the death toll will rise into the hundreds.

Following earlier reports that 43 construction workers were inside an unfinished 30-storey building that collapsed in the Chatuchak area of Bangkok as a result of a huge M7.7 earthquake in neighbouring Myanmar, AP initially reported that Thai emergency services had found at least two of the workers dead. The number of workers listed as missing was later increased to 81, then 100.

Rescue worker Songwut Wangpon, speaking to AP, told reporters that a further seven individuals had been found alive although it was not immediately clear if these were the missing construction workers.

A shocking video circulated on social media showed the building collapse in seconds with glass panels falling away and a large plume of smoke rising hundreds of metres into the air. Screams could be heard from scores of onlookers in a nearby market.

Bno's man on the ground at the scene of the building collapse, Yan Naing Aung, a reporter from Myanmar spoke to several people near the rubble. “I saw some people being carried away" Yan reports one bystander as saying. "They might (have been) unconscious or dead, I don’t know” the Myanmarese worker said.

Staff from the Embassy of Myanmar in Thailand were also quick to arrive Yan reports, adding that they talked with Myanmarese labourers about insurance. Later he reports seeing a number of migrant workers from Myanmar sitting inside the compound of the collapsed building waiting to find family and friends still missing. "I tried to speak with them but they’re not in the mood to give an interview" Yan added.

Meanwhile, in Myanmar close to the epicentre reports are coming out that around 150 have died with several hundred more injured. According to Myanmar Now, however, "the initial figures do not include fatalities from inside Mandalay, the city is known to have sustained some of the worst damage from the quake and emergency workers estimated that “hundreds” had been killed."

The earthquake hit in the early afternoon of Friday, March 28, and was felt as far West as India and as far East as Ho Chih Minh in Southern Vietnam. The worst affected areas so far have been the Thai capital Bangkok and other regions of Thailand although reports from inside Myanmar remain notoriously difficult to confirm.