Myanmar to hold minute of silence for more than 2 000 quake dead

MANDALAY – Myanmar held a minute of silence on April 1 in tribute to victims of a catastrophic earthquake that has killed close to 3,000 people, buckling roads and flattening buildings as far away as Bangkok.

Four days after the 7.7-magnitude 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 (2.21pm Singapore time) – the precise time the quake struck on March 28 – bringing the country to a standstill to remember those lost.

Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city and home to more than 1.7 million people, suffered some of the worst destruction, with many residential buildings collapsed into piles of rubble.

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 junta, with flags to fly at half-mast on official buildings until April 6 “in sympathy for the loss of life and damage”.

The junta said on April 1 that 2,719 have now been confirmed dead, with more than 4,500 people injured and 441 still missing. At least 20 people died in neighbouring Thailand.

The toll is expected to rise significantly as rescuers reach towns and villages where communications have been cut off by the quake.

In one miraculous development, a woman was rescued in the Myanmar capital of Naypyitaw on April 1, after being trapped by debris for 91 hours.

The woman, who is around 63