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Residents hurriedly moved belongings out with helps from Muang Bang Bua Thong Municipality officials, who also put up a sign "no entry" to prevent people from getting hurt from further subsiding.

A homeowner Wasin Ubolrassamee, 41, said his family lived there for 10 years and they heard a loud crack Monday morning, as if there was a construction going on in the Soi 4 neighbourhood.

Tuesday morning they heard the noise again three times and saw cracks rapidly appeared on ceilings and walls so they ran out and saw neighbours stood shaken up outside their homes too, Wasin said.

The estate headman Wichian Amatasatja, 65, discussed with the affected residents about demanding compensations from the estate developer. He said that 13 townhouses in Soi 1 in this estate had also subsided in 2004and the developer then paid the affected at Bt300,000 per home.

Wichian said the estate engineer had once told him that connected townhouses laid heavy on the soil, which is soft being old rice fields, so the houses slowly sank each year until the soil could no longer contain causing the subsiding. Wichian also suspected the estate contractor' foundation pillar laying method might also be a factor.

The estate was passed on from the original owner, a bankrupt businessman, to Sin Asia Co and later Bangkok Commercial Asset Management Co Ltd.