'A lot of panic': Dozens trapped in Bangkok collapse after 7.7 magnitude quake in Myanmar

Rescuers are working to free 81 people still trapped in the rubble of a collapsed high rise in Bangkok, the Thai deputy prime minister says.

Phumtham Wechachai, also the country's defence minister, said earlier today (see 10.27am post) that three people have been confirmed dead.

We're getting more accounts from witnesses in Thailand about what it was like earlier when the earthquakes hit.

Voranoot Thirawat, a lawyer working in central Bangkok, said her first indication that something was wrong came when she saw a light swinging back and forth. 

Then she heard the building creaking as it moved from the shockwaves.

She and her colleagues ran down 12 flights of stairs.

"In my lifetime, there was no earthquake like this in Bangkok," she told the AP news agency.

Watch: Bangkok declared disaster area

'There were people crying in the streets'

Paul Vincent, a tourist visiting from England, was at a streetside bar when the quake struck.

"The next thing, everybody came on the street, so there was a lot of screaming and panicking, which obviously made it a lot worse," he said.

As he came out into the street, he said he saw a high-rise building swaying and water falling from a rooftop pool.

"When I saw the building, oh my God, that's when it hit me," he said.

"There was people crying in the streets and, you know, the panic was horrendous really."

Myanmar's state media outlet, the Global New Light, reports that several buildings have collapsed in five cities and towns in the country after the earthquakes earlier.

The outlet also reports that two bridges collapsed and an expressway was damaged.

It did not give details of any casualties. 

Meanwhile, the Red Cross's international programme coordinator says that public infrastructure, "including roads, bridges and public buildings," has been damaged.

She told reporters: "We currently have concerns for large scale dams that people are watching to see the conditions of them.

"We anticipate the impact to be quite large."

Three people have died in Bangkok after the 7.7 magnitude earthquake today, the Thai defence minister has said.

Phumtham Wechayachai said the deaths were confirmed at the site where an under-construction high rise collapsed.

He added that 90 people were also missing but offered no updates on the ongoing rescue efforts.

More pictures are coming in now of a collapse at a construction site in Bangkok, where an unknown number of people are thought to be trapped.

The images show the scale of the challenge facing rescue workers.

Two people have already been confirmed dead in one of the collapses in the Thai capital.

More images are coming in of the aftermath of the earthquakes in Myanmar.

The Aungban Hotel in the northeastern Shan State area has been destroyed.

Other stills from Myanmar show a building that has completely collapsed. 

We've been bringing you live coverage of the earthquake in Myanmar and the aftermath in Thailand.

A 7.7 magnitude tremor was recorded northeast of Mandalay at a depth of 10km just before 6.30am UK time this morning.

If you're just joining us now, here's a recap on what's happened throughout the morning:

• At least two people have died in Bangkok after a building collapsed in the Thai capital;
• In Myanmar's Bago region, at least three people have died after a mosque partially collapsed, eyewitnesses say;
• Myanmar's ruling military junta declared a state of emergency, and Bangkok's city hall declared the capital a disaster area;
• Sky's Asia correspondent Cordelia Lynch said there was "no warning" in Bangkok as the quake struck;
• The US Geological Survey says thousands could be dead in Myanmar and the disaster "is likely widespread", after two separate quakes.

Bangkok city hall says Thailand's capital has been declared a disaster area following the Myanmar earthquake. 

It said the Bangkok governor has been placed in charge of coordinating the disaster response.

Fraser Morton, a Scottish tourist in Bangkok as the earthquake struck, says there was "a lot of screaming, a lot of panic".

He was in a shopping mall looking for camera equipment when "all of a sudden the whole building began to move". 

"Immediately, there was screaming and a lot of panic," he tells the Associated Press news agency. 

"I just started walking calmly at first but then the building started really moving... yeah, a lot of screaming, a lot of panic, people running the wrong way down the escalators, lots of banging and crashing inside the mall."

Like Morton, thousands of people poured into Benjasiri Park from nearby shopping malls, high rises and apartment buildings along Bangkok’s busy Sukhumvit Road.

The park was seen as an open space, safe from nearby high rise buildings.