Myanmar Earthquake Death Toll Crosses 2,700; Rescue Teams Warn Of Aid Shortages
Myanmar Earthquake: The 7.7 magnitude quake, which hit around lunchtime on Friday, was the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian country in more than a century.
Myanmar Earthquake: The death toll from the last week’s powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar has risen to over 2,700, with over 4,500 people injured and many still missing, the country’s ruling junta said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing, in a televised address on Tuesday, said that the death toll reached 2,719 and is expected to rise to more than 3,000. He said 4,521 people were injured, and 441 were missing. As rescue workers sift through the rubble of collapsed buildings, fears are mounting that the number of casualties will keep rising in the coming days.
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Most of the reports so far have come from Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, which was near the epicentre of the earthquake, and Naypyidaw. The search and rescue efforts were paused briefly on Tuesday as people stood for a minute in silent tribute to the victims.
The 7.7 magnitude quake, which hit around noontime on Friday, was the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian country in more than a century, toppling ancient pagodas and modern buildings alike. A state of emergency has been declared by Myanmar’s military government as rescue operations are underway to locate those trapped.
Rescue Teams Warn Of Aid Shortages
The rescue teams and aid groups in the worst-hit areas of Myanmar have emphasised on an urgent need for shelter, food and water for the victims, but said that the country’s civil war could prevent help reaching those in need.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that 50 children and two teachers were killed when their preschool collapsed in Mandalay. Aid organisations have warned shortages of food, water, and medical supplies, with thousands of displaced residents forced to sleep outdoors.
“In the hardest-hit areas …communities struggle to meet their basic needs, such as access to clean water and sanitation, while emergency teams work tirelessly to locate survivors and provide life-saving aid," the UN body said in a report.
Foreign aid workers have been arriving slowly to help in the rescue efforts, but progress was still slow with a lack of heavy machinery in many places. International rescue teams from several countries are on the scene, including from Russia, China, India, the United Arab Emirates and several Southeast Asian countries.
In one site in Naypyidaw on Tuesday, workers formed a human chain, passing chunks of brick and concrete out hand-by-hand from the ruins of a collapsed building.
People Sleeping Outdoors
The International Rescue Committee said shelter, food, water and medical help were all needed in places such as Mandalay, near the epicentre of the deadly earthquake.
“Having lived through the terror of the earthquake, people now fear aftershocks and are sleeping outside on roads or in open fields," an IRC worker in Mandalay said, as per the report.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that more than 10,000 buildings overall are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Myanmar.
Amnesty International has also called on the Junta to allow unrestricted humanitarian access to affected areas, particularly those outside its control.
Rescue Operation Underway In Thailand
At least 20 deaths have been confirmed in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, where an under-construction high-rise building collapsed, but officials have warned that it could rise as more bodies are recovered.
Meanwhile, search teams continued working at the site of the collapsed skyscraper as 74 people are still missing or trapped under the debris. Rescuers remained hopeful of finding survivors but acknowledged that the chances were dwindling, given that four days had passed since the earthquake.
“There are about 70 bodies underneath… and we hope by some miracle one or two are still alive," said Bin Bunluerit, a volunteer rescue leader. Bangkok deputy governor Tavida Kamolvej confirmed that scanners had detected six human-shaped figures but showed no signs of movement or life.
India’s Operation Brahma
As a first-responder, India on Tuesday despatched more than 400 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the East Asian nation under Operation Brahma, using naval ships INS Satpura and INS Savitri.
According to the Indian Embassy in Yangon, six Indian Air Force planes and five Navy ships have delivered aid to the cities of Yangon, Naypyidaw, and Mandalay.
India is sending more aid, with three additional Navy ships—INS Karmukh, INS Gharial, and LCU-S2—carrying over 500 tonnes of relief materials on their way to Yangon. A JAF C-130 aircraft is also set to land in Mandalay today with 15 tonnes of additional supplies.
A field hospital manned by experts from the Indian Army is operational at the old airport in Mandalay, the region hit hardest by the quake. The 80-member search and rescue team from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is combing through rubble at more than a dozen sites in Mandalay to look for survivors.
(With inputs from agencies)
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