Bangkok.- The search for survivors among the rubble of a Bangkok highrise continued Monday, as a «critical» 72-hour period lapsed since the collapse caused by Myanmar’s deadly earthquake.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt visited the site to observe the search and rescue efforts for 78 construction workers who remain missing since the building collapsed, according to the latest official figures.

“Yesterday we detected signs of life from three to four individuals, categorized as ‘weak.’ And even that gives us hope. Some of these signals are coming from depths of three to six meters,” he said.

Chadchart added that the collapse of the 30-story government building that was under construction occurred as workers were rushing to evacuate the building, so experts believe many of the missing could be in the fire escapes.

«This is seen as a potentially positive sign because the shaft structure is reinforced — almost like a protective enclosure. The stairwell contains stacked floors and internal cavities, which could provide survivable spaces,» he said.

The governor emphasized that 72 hours since the incident, which was around lunchtime Monday, was a «critical» deadline to find people alive beneath the mountain of cement, iron, and glass of the building located in the north of the capital, near the famous Chatuchak Market.

Rescue teams are using dogs, drones, a thermal imaging camera to detect body heat, and 3D scans of the structure to locate people among the towering rubble, where they have been working day and night since last Friday.

Teams of US and Israeli soldiers specialized in rescue work are already on the ground, while more international rescuers are expected to arrive Monday to assist in the complex mission.

So far, emergency teams have recovered 11 bodies from this site, out of a total of 18 deaths recorded from the earthquake across Bangkok, a metropolis that has almost completely returned to normal.

The Thai capital has thousands of highrise buildings in which the tremor was felt particularly intensely and where mostly cosmetic damage has been recorded, while engineers continued to work to assess their structural integrity.

The traffic flow resembles that of a normal workday, while public transportation systems are operating as usual.

In Myanmar, the military junta that has held power since the 2021 coup declared on Sunday that the death toll from this disaster is around 1,700, with more than 3,400 injured and about 140 missing due to Friday’s earthquake, which devastated the north-central part of the country.