Myanmar’s military rulers let in hundreds of foreign rescue personnel on Saturday after an earthquake killed more than 1,600 people, the deadliest natural disaster to hit the impoverished, war-torn country in years.
The death toll in Myanmar climbed to 1,644, the military government said on Saturday.
Survivors in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city, dug with their bare hands on Friday in desperate attempts to save those still trapped, lacking heavy machinery and with authorities absent.
In Bangkok on Saturday, rescue operations continued at the site of the 33-story tower’s collapse, where 47 people were missing or trapped under the rubble – including workers from Myanmar.
The US Geological Service’s predictive modelling estimated that Myanmar’s death toll could exceed 10,000 and losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output.
In neighbouring Thailand, where the quake rattled buildings and brought down a skyscraper under construction in the capital, Bangkok, at least nine people were killed.
An initial assessment by Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government said at least 2,900 buildings, 30 road,s and seven bridges had been damaged by the quake.
“Due to significant damage, Naypyitaw and Mandalay international airports are temporarily closed,” said the NUG, which includes remnants of the elected civilian government ousted by the military in a 2021 coup that triggered the civil war.
The control tower at the airport in Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s purpose-built capital city, collapsed, rendering it inoperable, a person with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Friday’s 7.7 magnitude quake, among the biggest to jolt the Southeast Asian nation in the last century, crippled airports, bridges and highways amid a civil war that has wrecked the economy and displaced millions.
