Earthquake death toll in Myanmar jumps to more than 1600

Bangkok: The death toll from a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar rose to 1644 on Saturday (Sunday AEDT), as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of the scores of buildings that collapsed when it struck near the country’s second-largest city.

The new total is a sharp rise compared to the 1002 total announced just hours earlier, underlining the difficulty of confirming casualties over a widespread region and the likelihood that the numbers will continue to grow from Friday’s quake. The number of injured increased to 3408, while the missing figure rose to 139.

The earthquake devastated the South-East Asian nation and rocked neighbouring Thailand on Friday.

“Infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and buildings were affected, leading to casualties and injuries among civilians. Search and rescue operations are currently being carried out in the affected areas,” the junta said in a statement issued on state media.

The junta leader, General Min Aung Hlaing, had warned on Friday of more deaths and injuries as he invited “any country” to provide help and donations.

The powerful earthquake destroyed buildings, a bridge and a dam. In Bangkok, about 1300 kilometres away from the epicentre, where a high-rise under construction collapsed, Thai authorities said nine people were killed, and 101 were missing, mostly labourers trapped in the rubble of the tower.

The 7.7-magnitude quake, with an epicentre near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, struck at midday and was followed by a strong 6.4-magnitude aftershock.

Myanmar is in an active earthquake belt, though many of the temblors happen in sparsely populated areas, not cities like those affected this time. The United States Geological Service’s predictive modelling estimated the death toll could exceed 10,000 people in Myanmar, and that losses could be greater than the value of the country’s gross domestic product.

The full extent of death, injury and destruction was not immediately clear – particularly in Myanmar, one of the world’s poorest countries. It is embroiled in a civil war, and information is tightly controlled.

The head of Myanmar’s military government said in a televised speech on Friday evening that at least 144 people were killed and 730 were injured.

“The death toll and injuries are expected to rise,” Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said.

Photos from the capital, Naypyidaw, showed multiple buildings used to house civil servants destroyed by the quake and rescue crews pulling victims from the rubble of multiple buildings used to house civil servants.

Myanmar’s government said blood was in high demand in the hardest-hit areas. In a country where prior governments sometimes have been slow to accept foreign aid, Min Aung Hlaing said Myanmar was ready to accept assistance. The United Nations allocated $US5 million ($7.9 million) to start relief efforts.

Images of buckled and cracked roads in Mandalay and damaged highways, as well as the collapse of a bridge and dam, raised further concerns about how rescuers would even reach some areas in a country already enduring a widespread humanitarian crisis.

Thai rescue workers remove a body that was recovered from the construction building collapse in Bangkok’s Chatuchak area.Credit: Getty Images

A damaged building in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw.Credit: AP

“We fear it may be weeks before we understand the full extent of destruction caused by this earthquake,” said Mohammed Riyas, the International Rescue Committee’s Myanmar director.

Near Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market, a 33-storey building under construction, with a crane on top, crumpled into a cloud of dust, and onlookers could be seen screaming and running in a video posted on social media.

Myanmar’s English-language state newspaper, Global New Light of Myanmar published a photo showing the wreckage of a sign that read “EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT”, which the caption said was part of the capital’s main 1000-bed hospital.

The USGS and Germany’s GFZ centre for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometres, according to preliminary reports. Shallower earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

Crane-topped building collapses in cloud of dust

In Bangkok, at least three people were killed in the building collapse, and 90 were missing, according to Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai. He offered no more details about the ongoing rescue efforts, but first responders said that seven people had been rescued so far from the area.

Rescuers work at the site a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok on Friday.Credit: AP

At least two of the dead were construction workers who were killed by falling rubble or debris, rescue worker Songwut Wangpon told reporters. The building was being built to house the government auditor-general’s department and had only recently celebrated the completion of the top floor.

Leading Thai newspaper Matichon reported the building was a project of a consortium, ITD-CREC, comprising the China Railway No. 10 company, a joint venture called PKW, and construction giant Italian-Thai Development.

The country’s largest construction company, Italian-Thai has been involved in many of Bangkok’s largest infrastructure and government projects but is also facing a $US3 billion ($4.8 billion) debt crunch. It was also involved in the Rama II expressway, which collapsed while under construction earlier this month, killing six people.

Elsewhere, people in Bangkok evacuated from their buildings were cautioned to stay outside in case there were more aftershocks.

April Kanichawanakul, who works in an office building in Bangkok, initially didn’t even realise it was an earthquake, the first she’d ever experienced. “I just thought I was dizzy,” she said.

She and her colleagues ran downstairs from the 10th floor of their building and waited outside for a signal that it was safe to go back in.

Screaming and panic as buildings swayed

Bangkok’s city hall declared the city a disaster area to facilitate the response. The greater metropolitan area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.

“All of a sudden, the whole building began to move. Immediately, there was screaming and a lot of panic,” said Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, who was in one of Bangkok’s many malls.

“I just started walking calmly at first, but then the building started really moving, yeah, a lot of screaming, a lot of panic, people running the wrong way down the escalators.”

Like Morton, thousands of people poured into Benjasiri Park from nearby shopping malls, high rises and apartment buildings along Bangkok’s busy Sukhumvit Road.

Many were on phones trying to reach loved ones as others sought shade from the hot early afternoon sun.

Voranoot Thirawat, a lawyer working in central Bangkok, said her first indication that something was wrong came when she saw a light swinging back and forth. Then she heard the building creaking as it, too, moved back and forth.

She and her colleagues ran down 12 flights of stairs. “In my lifetime, there was no earthquake like this in Bangkok,” she said.

Paul Vincent, a tourist visiting from England, was at a street-side bar when the quake struck.

As he came onto the street himself, he said he saw a high-rise building swaying and water falling from a rooftop pool.

“There was people crying in the streets and, you know, the panic was horrendous really,” he said.

Footage from above the pool shows a couple of swimmers scrambling to get to safety when the water begins to spill over the edge.

Bridge and monastery collapse and dam bursts in Myanmar

Myanmar’s government declared a state of emergency in six regions and states, including the capital, Naypyitaw and Mandalay. It was not clear what the declaration meant since the entire country has been under a state of emergency since 2021, when the junta took over in a military coup.

In Mandalay, the earthquake reportedly brought down multiple buildings, including the Ma Soe Yane monastery, one of the largest in the city, and damaged the former royal palace.

Myanmar’s military leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, centre, visits earthquake victims in hospital. in Naypyitaw.Credit: Myanmar Military/AP

Meanwhile, Christian Aid said its partners and colleagues on the ground reported that a dam burst in the city, causing water levels to rise in the lowland areas in the area.

A video posted online showed robed monks in the street shooting video of the multistorey monastery before it suddenly fell to the ground. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was harmed.

In the Sagaing region just south-west of the city, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and some sections of the highway connecting Mandalay and Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, were also damaged.

The Red Cross said downed power lines added to challenges for their teams trying to reach several hard-hit areas.

Residents in Yangon rushed out of their homes when the quake struck. In Naypyitaw, the quake damaged some homes and religious shrines, sending parts toppling to the ground.

The military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and is now involved in a bloody civil war with long-established militias and newly formed pro-democracy ones.

Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places are incredibly dangerous to access or simply out of reach for aid groups. More than 3 million people have been displaced by the fighting, and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.

China, Russia and India dispatch rescuers to Myanmar

China and Russia dispatched rescuers to Myanmar, which was rocked by a powerful earthquake that caused extensive damage.

A 37-member team from China’s Yunnan province reached Yangon early on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The team carried emergency relief supplies such as life detectors, earthquake early warning systems and drones, Xinhua said, and the team is expected to provide assistance in disaster relief and medical treatment efforts.

Russia’s emergencies ministry dispatched two planes carrying 120 rescuers and supplies, according to a report from Russian state news agency Tass.

“Based on orders from the Russian president and emergencies minister, a group of Russian rescuers has departed to Myanmar on two planes from Zhukovsky Airport outside Moscow to help address the aftermath of a powerful earthquake,” Tass reported that a ministry spokesperson said.

India dispatched a search and rescue team and a medical team as well as blankets, tarpaulin, hygiene kits, sleeping bags, solar lamps, food packets and kitchen sets, the country’s foreign minister posted on X.

Injuries reported in China

To the north-east, the earthquake was felt in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China and caused damage to houses and injuries in the city of Ruili on the border with Myanmar, according to Chinese media reports.

Videos that one outlet said it had received from a person in Ruili showed building debris littering a street and a person being wheeled in a stretcher toward an ambulance.

The shaking in Mangshi, a Chinese city about 100 kilometres north-east of Ruili, was so strong that people couldn’t stand, one resident told The Paper, an online media outlet.

AP, Reuters

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