Junta chief warns number of fatalities could go up as his administration faces a challenging situation
\n BANGKOK
\nThe toll from Myanmar\u2019s earthquake continued to rise on Sunday, as foreign rescue teams and aid rushed into the impoverished country, where hospitals were overwhelmed and some communities scrambled to mount rescue efforts with limited resources.
\nThe 7.7-magnitude quake, one of Myanmar\u2019s strongest in a century, jolted the war-torn Southeast Asian nation on Friday, leaving around 1,700 people dead, 3,400 injured and over 300 missing as of Sunday, the military government said.
\nThe junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, warned that the number of fatalities could go up and his administration faced a challenging situation, state media reported, three days after he made a rare call for international assistance.
\nIndia, China and Thailand are among Myanmar\u2019s neighbours that have sent relief materials and teams, along with aid and personnel from Malaysia, Singapore and Russia.
\n\u201cThe destruction has been extensive, and humanitarian needs are growing by the hour,\u201d the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.
\n\u201cWith temperatures rising and the monsoon season approaching in just weeks, there is an urgent need to stabilise affected communities before secondary crises emerge.\u201d
\nThe United States pledged $2 million in aid \u201cthrough Myanmar-based humanitarian assistance organisations\u201d and said in a statement that an emergency response team from USAID, which is undergoing massive cuts under the Trump administration, is deploying to Myanmar.
\nThe devastation has piled more misery on Myanmar, already in chaos from a civil war that grew out of a nationwide uprising after a 2021 military coup ousted the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
\nCritical infrastructure \u2014 including bridges, highways, airports and railways \u2014 across the country of 55 million lie damaged, slowing humanitarian efforts while the conflict that has battered the economy, displaced over 3.5 million people and debilitated the health system rages on.
\nIn some areas near the epicentre, residents told Reuters that government assistance was scarce, leaving people to fend for themselves.
\n\u201cIt is necessary to restore the transportation routes as soon as possible,\u201d Min Aung Hlaing told officials on Saturday, according to state media. \u201cIt is necessary to fix the railways and also reopen the airports so that rescue operations would be more effective.\u201d
\nThe US Geological Service\u2019s predictive modelling estimated Myanmar\u2019s death toll could eventually top 10,000 and losses could exceed the country\u2019s annual economic output.
\n\u2018No aid, no rescue workers\u2019
\nHospitals in parts of central and northwestern Myanmar, including the second-biggest city, Mandalay, and the capital Naypyitaw, were struggling to cope with an influx of injured people, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said late on Saturday.
\nThe quake also shook parts of neighbouring Thailand, bringing down an under-construction skyscraper and killing 18 people across the capital, according to Thai authorities.
\nAt least 76 people remained trapped under the debris of the collapsed Bangkok building, where rescue operations continued for a third day, using drones and sniffer dogs to hunt for survivors.
\nMyanmar\u2019s opposition National Unity Government, which includes remnants of the previous administration, said anti-junta militias under its command would pause all offensive military actions for two weeks from Sunday.
\nThe devastation in some areas of upper Myanmar, such as the town of Sagaing near the quake\u2019s epicentre, was extensive, said resident Han Zin.
\n\u201cWhat we are seeing here is widespread destruction \u2014 many buildings have collapsed into the ground,\u201d he said by phone, adding that much of the town had been without electricity since the disaster hit and drinking water was running out.
\n\u201cWe have received no aid, and there are no rescue workers in sight.\u201d
\nSections of a major bridge connecting Sagaing to nearby Mandalay collapsed, satellite imagery showed, with spans of the colonial-era structure submerged in the Irrawaddy river.
\n\u201cWith bridges destroyed, even aid from Mandalay is struggling to get through,\u201d Sagaing Federal Unit Hluttaw, a political association linked to the NUG, said on Facebook.
\n\u201cFood and medicine are unavailable, and the rising number of casualties is overwhelming the small local hospital, which lacks the capacity to treat all the patients.\u201d
\n\u2018Can you hear me calling out?\u2019
\nIn Mandalay, scores of people were feared trapped under collapsed buildings and most could not be reached or pulled out without heavy machinery, two humanitarian workers and two residents said.
\n\u201cMy teams in Mandalay are using work gloves, ropes and basic kits to dig and retrieve people,\u201d said one of the humanitarian workers. Reuters is not naming them because of security concerns.
\n\u201cThere are countless trapped and still missing. The death toll is impossible to count at the moment due to the number trapped and unidentified, if alive.\u201d
\nA video filmed by a Mandalay resident on Saturday and shared with Reuters showed patients in beds, some attached to drips, on the grounds outside a 500-bed orthopaedic hospital in the city.
\nPublic and private health care facilities in Mandalay, including the Mandalay General Hospital and parts of Mandalay Medical University, were damaged by the quake, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
\nRussian and Indian rescue workers were heading to Mandalay, and multiple teams of Chinese, Thai and Singapore rescue personnel have also arrived in the country.
\nIn Bangkok, at the site of the collapsed 33-storey building, rescuers surrounded by shattered concrete piles and twisted metal continued their efforts to rescue dozens of workers trapped under the rubble.
\nTeerasak Thongmo, a Thai police commander, said his team of policemen and rescue dogs were racing against time to locate survivors, struggling to move around metal debris and sharp edg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Junta chief warns number of fatalities could go up as his administration faces a challenging situation BANGKOK The toll from Myanmar\u2019s earthquake continued to rise on Sunday, as foreign rescue teams and aid rushed into the impoverished country, where hospitals were overwhelmed and some communities scrambled to mount rescue efforts with limited resources. The 7.7-magnitude […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-470032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n