We fled when the lights began swinging, says Komtar worker

 

Siti Nurul Aisyah Nasser said she left the Komtar building after she saw the lights start swinging. (File pic)

GEORGE TOWN: 

Office workers at the Komtar tower fled the building on their own after tremors were felt from a powerful earthquake in Myanmar this afternoon.

“We saw the lights swinging and decided to go down,” said Siti Nurul Aisyah Nasser, 25, who left the building at about 2.30pm with her colleague, Junaidah Jamil, 43. They said they returned to their office after some 30 minutes as there was no order for them to stay out.

A Komtar security officer said many had come down on their own after feeling queasy from the sudden tremor which lasted for minutes.

At an office block in Northam Road, Aaron Ngui, 42, said he noticed the tremors only after a colleague pointed out to him.

“When I stood up, I felt the floor shaking and saw the lights swaying left to right,” said Ngui, who works at a leadership development firm.

Ngui said he checked online and found news of the quake, and later confirmed that a colleague in Bangkok had safely evacuated.

The 7.7-magnitude earthquake brought down a skyscraper under construction in Bangkok, killing at least one person, and toppled a mosque and a hotel in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city. At least five people were killed in Mandalay. - FMT