Myanmar earthquake death toll soars to 1,644 as rescue teams search for survivors

Myanmar’s ruling military announced Saturday that the confirmed death toll from the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake has risen to 1,644, as rescue teams continue pulling bodies from the rubble of collapsed buildings.

The quake, which struck near the country’s second-largest city on Friday, has also injured 3,408 and left 139 people missing. The sharp rise in casualties from the 1,002 reported earlier highlights the challenges of assessing the full scale of the disaster across the affected region.

This was the biggest quake to hit Myanmar in decades, according to geologists, and the tremors were powerful enough to severely damage buildings across Bangkok, hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from the epicentre.

There was no respite for Myanmar on Saturday either, as the country was hit by three more tremors. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a 5.1-magnitude quake near Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, at 2:50 pm IST.

Meanwhile, over 90 people were reportedly trapped in the debris of an apartment block in Myanmar’s Mandalay. A Red Cross official told AFP that the Sky Villa Condominium was among the buildings worst hit by the tremors, with several of its 12-storey towers pancaked one on top of the other.

The Condo, which was originally a 12-storey building, has been reduced to six floors by the quake, with the cracked pastel green walls of the upper floors perched on the crushed remains of the lower levels.

Rescuers pulled a woman alive from the wreckage of a collapsed apartment building, 30 hours after she was stuck in the debris.

Phyu Lay Khaing, 30, was brought out of the Sky Villa Condominium by rescuers and carried by stretcher to be embraced by her husband Ye Aung and taken to hospital.

“In the beginning I didn’t think she would be alive,” Ye Aung told AFP as he anxiously waited for his wife – then buried in the rubble – to emerge.

“I am very happy that I heard good news,” said the trader, who has two sons with his wife – eight-year-old William, and Ethan, five.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid on Friday, indicating the severity of the calamity. Previous military governments have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.

The country declared a state of emergency across the six worst-affected regions after the quake, and at one major hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw, medics were forced to treat the wounded in the open air.

Offers of foreign assistance began coming in, with President Donald Trump pledging US help.

An initial aid delivery arrived from India, while China said it sent more than 80 rescuers to Myanmar and pledged $13.8 million in emergency assistance.

Aid agencies have warned that Myanmar is unprepared to deal with a disaster of this magnitude. Some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger, even before the quake struck.

With inputs from agencies