Earthquake
Bangkok is far from active faults, but its soft ground amplifies shaking from large distant earthquakes. On 28 March 2025 a magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Myanmar shook high-rise buildings across the city and brought down a tower under construction in Chatuchak.
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This is guidance to read before you need it.
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- If it is still shaking, drop to your hands and knees, cover your head and neck, and hold on until it stops.
- When the shaking stops, check yourself and the people around you for injuries. Call 1669 for anyone badly hurt.
- Leave a tall or damaged building by the stairs. Never use the lift.
- Once outside, go to an open space away from buildings, walls and power cables.
- Expect aftershocks. Do not go back inside until staff say the building is safe.
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During the shaking
- Drop, cover and hold on where you are. Get under a sturdy desk or table if one is within a step or two. If not, crouch by an inside wall and protect your head and neck with your arms.
- Stay inside. Most injuries happen when people try to move or run out and are hit by falling glass and debris.
- Do not stand in a doorway. In modern buildings it is no safer than anywhere else.
- Keep away from windows, glass partitions, bookshelves and anything that could fall.
- In bed, stay there and cover your head with a pillow.
- If you use a wheelchair, lock the wheels, bend forward and cover your head and neck.
In a tall building
High floors can sway for a long time, sometimes after the ground has stopped moving. Swaying on its own does not mean the building is failing. Fire alarms and sprinklers may go off.
Stay where you are until the shaking stops, then leave by the stairs, as DDPM advises. Look out for cracked stairs, fallen ceiling panels and broken glass on the way down.
Outside or travelling
- Move away from buildings, walls, signs, trees and power cables, then crouch and cover your head.
- In a vehicle, pull over away from bridges, flyovers and buildings and stay inside until the shaking stops.
- On a river boat or pier, hold on and follow the crew. Keep clear of the pier edge.
After the shaking
- If you smell gas, see sparking cables or notice wide new cracks in walls, pillars or beams, leave the building and report it.
- Do not light a flame or switch on electrical equipment if you smell gas.
- Use text messages or chat apps instead of calls, so lines stay free for emergencies.
- Follow updates from Thammasat University and the Thai Meteorological Department before returning to any building.
Be ready before it happens
- Turn on emergency alerts on your phone. DDPM now sends warnings by cell broadcast, in Thai and English.
- Learn where the stairs are in the buildings you use, especially above the fourth floor.
- Keep heavy objects off high shelves above where you sit or sleep.
Contacts
Ambulance and medical emergency
24 hours, free
Fire and rescue
24 hours, free
Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM)
24 hours. Disaster reports and help after floods, storms and earthquakes.
Police emergency
24 hours, free
Thai Meteorological Department
Weather warnings and earthquake reports.
Erawan Centre, Bangkok's emergency medical service
24 hours, free
Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA)
24 hours. Fallen cables, sparking equipment and power cuts.
Tourist Police
24 hours, in English and other languages. The best line if you do not speak Thai.
Mental health hotline
24 hours, free, mostly in Thai. Talk to someone if what happened is weighing on you.