Myanmar yesterday held a minute’s silence in tribute to victims of a catastrophic earthquake that has killed more than 2,000 people, buckling roads and flattening buildings as far away as Bangkok.
Four days after the shallow magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck, many people in Myanmar are still sleeping outdoors, either unable to return to ruined homes or afraid of further aftershocks.
Sirens rang out at 12:51:02 — the precise time the quake struck on Friday — bringing the country to a standstill to remember those lost.
Photo: AP
Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city with 1.7 million inhabitants, sustained some of the worst destruction.
Outside the Sky Villa apartment complex, one of the city’s worst-hit disaster sites, rescue workers stopped and lined up with hands clasped behind their backs to pay their respects.
Officials and attendants stood behind a cordon, watching relatives further back, as the sirens wailed and a Myanmar flag flew at half-mast from a bamboo pole tied to a rescue tent.
The moment of remembrance is part of a week of national mourning declared by the ruling junta, with flags to fly at half-mast on official buildings until Sunday “in sympathy for the loss of life and damages.”
The junta on Monday said that more than 2,000 people have been confirmed dead, with more than 3,900 injured and 270 missing. At least 20 people died in Thailand.
The toll is expected to rise significantly, as rescuers reach towns and villages where communications have been cut off by the quake.
However, in one miraculous development, a woman was yesterday rescued in the Burmese capital, Naypyidaw, after being trapped by debris for 91 hours.
The woman, 63, was found alive yesterday morning, then “successfully rescued” and transferred to a hospital, the Myanmar Fire Services Department wrote on Facebook.
More than 1,000 foreign rescuers have flown in to help and Burmese state media reported that nearly 650 people have been pulled alive from ruined buildings around the country.
Hundreds of Mandalay residents spent a fourth night sleeping in the open, with their homes destroyed or fearing aftershocks would cause more damage.
“I don’t feel safe. There are six or seven-floor buildings beside my house leaning, and they can collapse any time,” Soe Tint, a watchmaker, said after sleeping outside.
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