High toll feared as major quake batters Myanmar

BANGKOK – Foreign rescue teams began flying into Myanmar on March 29 to aid the search for survivors of an earthquake that killed more than 1,600 people in the impoverished South-east Asian nation, crippling critical infrastructure amid a grinding civil war.

The death toll from the major quake in Myanmar had risen to 1,644, the ruling junta said on March 29, with 3,408 people injured.

At least nine people were killed in neighbouring Thailand, where the 7.7-magnitude quake rattled buildings and brought down a skyscraper under construction in the capital Bangkok, trapping 30 people under debris, with 49 missing.

Survivors in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city, dug with their bare hands in desperate attempts to save those still trapped, lacking heavy machinery and with the authorities absent.

Mr Htet Min Oo, 25, said that after he was dragged out from under a wall by other residents, he tried to clear the rubble of a crumpled building himself to rescue his grandmother and two uncles – but eventually gave up.

“I don’t know if they are still alive under the debris,” he told Reuters, breaking into tears. “After so long, I don’t think there’s any hope.”

The US Geological Survey’s (USGS) predictive modelling estimated the death toll could exceed 10,000 in Myanmar and that losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output.

A day after making a rare call for international assistance, Myanmar’s junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, travelled to hard-hit Mandalay near the epicentre of the quake.

“The chairman of the State Administration Council instructed the authorities to expedite search and rescue efforts and address any urgent needs,” the junta said in a statement on state media, referring to Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

“Search and rescue operations are currently being carried out in the affected areas,” the junta said.