A sinking feeling: No injuries as ground floor of Hua Mark Police Station buckles
Nobody was injured when the ground floor of a building in the Hua Mark Police Station complex sank by about half a metre on Thursday.
Police station chief Pol Colonel Setthaphan Srisakhon said the almost 50-year-old building was used by both the police station and the adjacent Hua Mark fire station.
Initial investigation showed that the building’s floor area of about 50 square metres had cracked and sunk by about 20 to 50 centimetres.
The area in front and behind the building, where a 15-metre-high observation tower is located, also sank by about 20cm. The sinking of the floor does not appear to have affected other parts of the building.
The police station has alerted the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s civil engineering division to perform a detailed investigation.
Setthaphan added that the ground floor has been closed off and officials who worked there have been shifted to the second and third floors, which are still operational.
“A new police station building, a dormitory and a parking lot are being built near the old building, which may have caused the ground floor to sink,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sajjaporn Yuwatthana, chief of Hua Mark fire station, said there have been several reports of the ground near the police station and fire station sinking due to the construction of the MRT Orange Line on Ramkhamhaeng Road.
He called on related agencies to perform a detailed investigation of all buildings in the area to ensure public safety.
