People yesterday scoured collapsed buildings searching for survivors as aftershocks rattled the devastated city of Mandalay, two days after a massive earthquake killed at least 1,700 people in Myanmar and at least 18 in neighboring Thailand.
The initial magnitude 7.7 quake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock.
The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with mass destruction seen in the city of more than 1.7 million people.
Photo: Reuters
Tea shop owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a collapsed restaurant on a main road in his neighborhood early yesterday, tossing bricks aside one by one.
“About seven people died here” when the quake struck, he said. “I’m looking for more bodies, but I know there cannot be any survivors.”
About an hour later, a small aftershock struck, sending people scurrying out of a hotel for safety, following a similar tremor felt late on Saturday evening.
At about 2pm, a magnitude 5.1 aftershock sent people into the streets in alarm once again, temporarily halting rescue work.
The night before, rescuers had pulled a woman out alive from the wreckage of a collapsed apartment building, with applause ringing out as she was carried by stretcher to an ambulance.
Myanmar’s ruling junta in a statement yesterday afternoon said that about 1,700 people were confirmed dead so far, about 3,400 injured and about 300 more missing.
However, the true scale of the disaster remains unclear in the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.
At a destroyed Buddhist examination hall in Mandalay, Chinese responders yesterday worked to find buried victims.
So far, 21 people have been rescued, while 13 bodies have been recovered, but at least two more people were still believed alive in the rubble, rescuers said.
San Nwe Aye, sister of a 46-year-old monk missing in the collapsed hall, appeared in deep distress, and said that she has heard no news about his status.
“I want to hear the sound of him preaching,” she said. “The whole village looked up to him.”
Burmese State Administration Council Chairman Min Aung Hlaing on Friday issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid, indicating the severity of the calamity.
Previous military governments have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.
Myanmar has already been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.
Reports have emerged of sporadic fighting even after the quake, with one rebel group yesterday saying that seven of its fighters were killed in an aerial attack soon after the tremors hit.
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