Indian rescue teams recover 7 bodies in quake-hit Myanmar

Indian rescue teams in earthquake-hit Myanmar have recovered at least seven bodies from the rubble as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Indian Army medical teams continue relief operations in the Mandalay region, the epicentre of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck on March 28.

Deployed on Monday afternoon, the NDRF teams have been tasked with conducting relief and rescue operations across a dozen buildings, including the Uhla Thein Monastery, where around 270 monks are believed to be trapped. Many of these monks had gathered for a scheduled religious exam.

Toll crosses 2,000

Bangkok: The death toll in last week’s massive earthquake in Myanmar has passed 2,000, state media reported on Monday, as rescuers and an activist group said it killed several hundred Muslims praying at mosques during the holy month of Ramadan and 270 Buddhist monks crushed by a collapsing monastery. The quake could exacerbate hunger and disease outbreaks in a country that was already one of the world’s most challenging places for humanitarian organisations to operate because of civil war, aid groups and the United Nations warned.

Indian rescue teams are also operating at Mandalay Palace, Maha Muni Pagoda and the Myanmar Institute of Information Technology (MIIT) — all sites that have suffered significant damage. The NDRF and Army teams have been assigned to work in 13 buildings in ‘Sector D’ of Mandalay city, Myanmar’s second-largest urban area, located about 65 km from the airport in Naypyitaw, the capital.

India has launched ‘Operation Brahma’ to assist Myanmar, with which it shares a 1,643-km international boundary. Three plane loads of relief materials have already been sent to Myanmar. Besides, two Indian Naval ships have reached Yangon, while two more ships carrying over 50 tonnes of relief material are en route. A field hospital, flown out from Agra on Saturday, has been deployed on the ground.

The relief material was handed over to Myanmar’s State Mahanayak Committee, the second-highest committee in the country.

Earlier in the day, Indian Army medical teams began ground movement towards Mandalay, transporting personnel and relief assets. A convoy of 110 Indian Army Field Hospital personnel and 13 NDRF members, along with essential equipment and medical supplies, is en route to Mandalay via 15 Myanmar Army military trucks, three buses and seven vehicles from the NDRF and Indian contingent. The convoy is being escorted by Myanmar Army vehicles.

Yesterday, 10 Indian Army Field Hospital personnel and NDRF members arrived in Mandalay aboard a Myanmar military plane. The Indian Army’s Field Hospital has been allocated space at the Old Mandalay Airfield.