Rescuers race to find survivors as Myanmar quake toll rises to 1,644

The death toll from a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar jumped to more than 1,644 on Saturday as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of the scores of buildings that collapsed when it struck near the country’s second-largest city.

The country’s military-led government said in a statement that 1,644 people had been found dead and another 2,376 injured, with 30 others missing. The statement suggested the numbers could still rise, saying “detailed figures are still being collected.”

Myanmar is in the throes of a prolonged civil war, which is already responsible for a humanitarian crisis. It makes movement around the country both difficult and dangerous, complicating relief efforts and raising fears that the death toll could still rise precipitously.

The earthquake struck midday Friday with an epicentre not far from Mandalay, followed by several aftershocks, including one measuring 6.4. It sent buildings in many areas toppling to the ground, buckled roads, caused bridges to collapse and burst a dam.

In the capital, Naypyidaw, crews worked on Saturday to repair damaged roads, while electricity, phone and internet services remained down for most of the city. The earthquake brought down many buildings, including multiple units that housed government civil servants, but that section of the city was blocked off by authorities on Saturday.

In neighbouring Thailand, the quake rocked the greater Bangkok area, home to around 17 million people, and other parts of the country. The authorities said the number of confirmed dead was now 10, nine at the site of the collapsed high-rise under construction near the capital’s popular Chatuchak market, while 78 persons were still unaccounted for. Rescue efforts were continuing in the hope of finding additional survivors.

Earthquakes are rare in Bangkok, but relatively common in Myanmar. The country sits on the Sagaing Fault, a major north-south fault that separates the India plate and the Sunda plate. Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said the quake caused intense ground shaking in an area where most of the population lived in buildings constructed of timber and unreinforced brick masonry.

“When you have a large earthquake in an area where there are over a million people, many of them living in vulnerable buildings, the consequences can often be disastrous,” he said.