Two AU students caught in Bangkok earthquake: "The ground shook, and items fell off the shelves"

AU students Amalie Overgaard Stevnhøj and Amalie Girard were grabbing a quick snack after lunch at a 7-Eleven in Bangkok's Sathon district when they suddenly felt the earthquake that struck Thailand earlier that day, having originated near Mandalay in Myanmar.

"We were standing at the counter and could clearly feel the ground shaking beneath us, and we could tell the others in the store felt it too. The power went out in the store and items started to fall off the shelves," the two students say on a phone call from Bangkok.

The two students headed for the exit, but the store's electric doors could not open due to the power cut.

"Just as we were standing there, unable to get out, everything flashed before my eyes,”

"Just as we were standing there, unable to get out, everything flashed before my eyes," says Amalie Girard.

However, an employee managed to open the door manually and the two students, along with the other customers, ran out into the street where traffic had come to a standstill. As there were no large squares or parks nearby, the two students sought out the centre of the roadway to avoid standing right underneath the buildings.

"With the naked eye, we could see the surrounding buildings swaying from the tremors, and it went on for a while, probably for a few minutes, and we almost lost our balance ourselves," they say.

"The quake seemed to catch the locals off guard as well, and if there was any warning about it, we definitely missed it. It didn't seem like the locals knew what to do in such a situation either," they continue.

Not at uni

Amalie Overgaard Stevnhøj and Amalie Girard are studying Cognitive Science and Information Science at Aarhus University, both in the sixth semester of their bachelor programmes. But since the beginning of January, they have been on exchange at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, where they are studying the same five subjects at the School of Integrated Innovation this semester.

"It's a relatively new faculty that combines arts and science and focuses on technological solutions in the healthcare sector," they say.

The two students didn’t have classes that day, but an app from the university informed them that there had been an earthquake and to evacuate tall buildings.

"The university is now completely closed, as are offices and shopping centres," say the two students, who have both been in contact with their relatives in Denmark.

They have now returned to their apartment in Bangkok and are trying to get an overview of the situation.

"But it's hard to gather an overview of information that you can trust," they say.

"It'll be interesting to go back to uni next week and hear how our classmates experienced the earthquake. Maybe they'll see it differently from us since it might not have been their first one," they say.

Despite the dramatic experience, both Amalie Overgaard Stevnhøj and Amalie Girard say they are doing well.

"When it happened, of course, we were quite shocked; it's an absurd situation to suddenly find yourself in. But we've calmed down now. But it's devastating to see the images from other parts of the city where buildings have collapsed and people have died," they say.

Rikke Nielsen, Head of International Affairs at Aarhus University, tells Omnibus that AU has three exchange students in Bangkok, all at partner university Chualalongkorn University in Bangkok. The students are from the Faculty of Arts at AU, which has been in touch with them.

Rikke Nielsen also explains that the university only has an overview of the students who are on exchange via an exchange agreement with one of AU's partner universities. Whether there are students from AU in Bangkok or Myanmar via individual agreements, she does not know. 

This text is machine translated and post-edited by Cecillia Jensen.