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Myanmar earthquake: What we know so far
- The death toll from a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar on Friday has surpassed 1,700 and flattened huge swathes of the South-east Asian nation.
- The US Geological Survey’s predictive modelling estimates Myanmar’s death toll could eventually top 10,000 and losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output.
- Red Cross officials said Myanmar was facing “a level of devastation that hasn’t been seen over a century in Asia”.
- In neighbouring Thailand, at least 18 people have been killed and rescue efforts are continuing at the site of a collapsed 30-storey tower in Bangkok. Rescuers are scrambling to find 78 people still missing.
- Rescuers freed a woman from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar’s Mandalay, officials said on Monday, offering a glimmer of hope that more survivors may be found.
- Images from the city of Mandalay show entire neighbourhoods in ruins and broken-off pagodas from the top of temples reduced to rubble. Highways, bridges, airports and railways in several parts of the country have been damaged, Reuters reports.
- Burmese military jets launched airstrikes and drone attacks in Karen state, according to the Free Burma Rangers, a relief organisation. The strikes hit near the headquarters of the Karen National Union (KNU), an armed resistance group against the country’s military-run government.
- The KNU criticised the country’s military government for “deploying forces to attack its people” when it should be focused on the relief effort. Singapore’s foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, called for an immediate ceasefire to help aid distribution.
- Aid from China, Russia, India, the UK and neighbouring South-east Asian nations has begun flowing into Myanmar.
- China sent an 82-person team of rescuers into the country in the hours after the quake and a 118-member search and rescue team had also arrived, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
- The Chinese government said it would provide 100m yuan ($13.8m) in emergency humanitarian assistance, with shipments to begin Monday.
- In contrast, the US government – which is in the process of gutting its central foreign aid agency, USAID – has pledged just $2m for the relief effort.
- In the city of Sagaing, which was hit by the quake and a series of aftershocks, the provincial fire department was among the building destroyed, damaging all the rescue machinery and vehicles inside. There are not enough rescue teams to retrieve the dead bodies, nor is there sufficient equipment to sift through debris.
- Sagaing’s hospital has also been damaged, forcing patients outside into the searing heat, said Ma Ei, a resident who has helped in the humanitarian efforts. They also need dry food, drinking water and medicines, she said.
