Police in Thailand detained four Chinese nationals on Sunday for unlawfully entering the site of an under-construction building that collapsed after a powerful earthquake in Chatuchak District last week. The police said these men were trying to retrieve documents from the building site. 

A Chinese-backed construction firm is being investigated over the collapse of the 30-story under-construction high-rise during Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar. The unfinished building crumbled in seconds, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air and trapping dozens under the rubble.

Police Major General Nopasin Poolswat, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said that four Chinese nationals were apprehended for illegally removing 32 files of documents from the rear of the collapsed State Audit Office (SAO) building, without permission, according to a report by the National Thailand.

ALSO READ: China Connection Emerges In Bangkok Skyscraper That Collapsed During Quake

After the powerful quake, the Bangkok Governor declared the area of the building collapse a disaster zone, thereby designating it as a restricted area where no one was allowed to enter without authorization. However, the police said that on Saturday, they received information about some individuals removing documents from the site.

Upon investigation, they located one of the Chinese men near the incident site, who claimed he was the project manager for a building construction project. 

During the probe, it was confirmed that the apprehended man had a valid work permit and that his company was employed by a joint venture with Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited, the contractor for the building under construction.

Police also located three other men and confiscated 32 documents they were carrying, which included various types of paperwork, the National Thailand report said.

The four Chinese individuals told police that they were subcontractors working for a contractor under Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited. They said they entered the area to retrieve the documents that were needed for an insurance claim and were stored in a container that was being used as a temporary office by the company.

After completing the questioning, the police temporarily released the suspects. But, later on Sunday, authorities from the Chatuchak District Office filed a complaint against five Chinese nationals for violating the public announcement by entering the building site and removing blueprints and other documents from the collapsed SAO building.

As a result, the police will proceed with legal action against the four individuals. The fifth individual, their employer, is under investigation, and further actions will follow.

Bangkok Building Collapse

According to news agency AFP, as of Sunday, 17 deaths have been confirmed, with 32 injured and 76 still unaccounted for – most of them construction workers from the site of the collapsed building. Search and rescue teams continue working under intense heat to locate possible survivors.

Despite Bangkok’s skyline being filled with high-rise buildings under construction, no other projects suffered similar destruction. Experts and officials are now questioning the structural integrity of the collapsed building, which belonged to Thailand’s State Audit Office (SAO) and had been under construction for three years at a reported cost of over two billion baht (45 million pounds).

The World Health Organization said the Myanmar earthquake was a top-level emergency as it urgently sought $8 million to save lives and prevent disease outbreaks over the next 30 days.

Rescuers braved aftershocks to scour the devastated city of Mandalay for survivors on Monday, after a massive earthquake. In Myanmar, about 1,700 people are confirmed dead so far, about 3,400 injured and around 300 more missing, according to the ruling junta.

At least 18 people have been killed in Bangkok, city authorities said Sunday, with 33 injured and 78 still missing. Across the border in Thailand, rescuers in Bangkok worked Sunday to pluck out survivors trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper that was under construction collapsed after the earthquake.

The earthquake struck northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar, and was followed by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock minutes later. It destroyed buildings, downed bridges, and buckled roads across the country, with massive destruction seen in Mandalay, the country’s second biggest city and home to more than 1.7 million people.

Here are the Live Updates of Myanmar-Bangkok earthquake relief:

The comments come as the US president is set to unveil a massive slate of import taxes on Wednesday. 

​The comments come as the US president is set to unveil a massive slate of import taxes on Wednesday.