Search for bodies ends at Bangkok collapse site
published : 12 May 2025 at 10:09
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Online Reporters

Efforts to recover the bodies of those lost in the collapse of the State Audit Office building in Bangkok, triggered by the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar on March 28, have ended, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced on Saturday.
The BMA said the final area - lift shafts below the basement level - had been accessed, adding that no bodies or victims had been found after all six shafts were opened.
The focus will now shift to examining body parts present in the removed rubble, with a K9 dog team still searching for remains, the BMA said.
A skull fragment was found in the debris on Friday, before two more bone pieces were discovered early Saturday.
Asked about seven missing people who have not yet been located, the BMA said that larger remains were still undergoing forensic testing.
As of Saturday morning, the death toll stood at 89, with nine people injured and seven still missing. Authorities also recently located four workers who were missing and had not been in the 30-storey high-rise during the March 28 quake.
Next week, police are expected to issue arrest warrants for three groups of people suspected of malfeasance leading to the collapse of the under-construction building. It was the only building in Bangkok to collapse during the earthquake.
Vocabulary
- access: the ability or opportunity to enter a building or place - สิทธิ์เข้าสู่ โอกาสในการเข้าสู่
- BMA (noun): the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration; the local government of Bangkok - กรุงเทพมหานคร
- bone (noun): the hard inner structure of the body - กระดูก
- collapse: a situation in which something fails or stops existing - การพังทลาย
- death toll: the number of people killed - ยอดผู้เสียชีวิต
- forensic: relating to the use of scientific methods to solve crimes or to find out why something happened - เกี่ยวกับนิติวิทยาศาสตร์
- fragment: a small piece of a large object that has broken, often into a lot of pieces - ส่วนที่แตกออกมา
- malfeasance: illegal actions, especially by a person in authority - การใช้อำนาจไปในทางที่ผิด
- remains: the body of a person or animal that has died - ซากศพ
- rubble: broken pieces of stone and brick from building, walls, etc., that have been destroyed - ซากปรักหักพัง
- shaft: a long narrow passage, e.g., one that leads from the surface of the ground down to a mine - อุโมงค์แนวตั้ง
- skull : the bones of the head - กระโหลกศีรษะ