Volunteers work at an earthquake affected area in Mandalay, central Myanmar, on March 29, 2025
| Photo Credit: AP
Residents scrambled desperately through collapsed buildings Sunday (March 30, 2025) searching for survivors as aftershocks rattled the devastated city of Mandalay, two days after a massive earthquake killed more than 1,600 people in Myanmar and at least 11 in neighbouring Thailand.
The initial 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
In pictures: Massive earthquake rocks Myanmar and Thailand
Thai rescue teams provide aid at a construction building collapse in Bangkok’s Chatuchak area on March 28, 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Vehicles make their way near a road damaged by an earthquake on March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar
Damaged pagodas are seen after an earthquake, Friday, March 28, 2025 in Naypyitaw, Myanmar.
In this image provided by The Myanmar Military True News Information Team, victims caused by an earthquake is seen compound of government hospital on March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar.
In this image provided by The Myanmar Military True News Information Team, Myanmar’s military leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, center, inspects damaged road caused by an earthquake Friday, March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar.
Soldiers from the Royal Thai Army with the K-9 Unit for search and recovery at the site of collapsed construction building on March 28, 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Rescue workers take watch outside of the site of collapsed construction building in Chatuchak area on March 28, 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Volunteers look for survivors near a damaged building on March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar.
Rescue workers conduct a search and rescue operation for the people who are trapped within the rubbles of a collapsed under-construction skyscraper in the Chatuchak area during the night on March 29, 2025, in Bangkok, Thailand.
Rescuers resume operations at the Chatuchak site of a skyscraper collapse on March 29, 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand. In the aftermath of the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar, Bangkok finds itself in an unprecedented state of paralysis in Friday evening.
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The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with mass destruction seen in the city of more than 1.7 million people.
As dawn broke Sunday, tea shop owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a collapsed restaurant on a main road in his neighbourhood, tossing bricks aside one by one.
“About seven people died here” when the earthquake struck Friday, he told AFP. “I’m looking for more bodies but I know there cannot be any survivors.
“We don’t know how many bodies there could be but we are looking.”
About an hour later, a small aftershock struck, sending people scurrying out of a hotel for safety, following a similar tremor felt late Saturday evening.
Truckloads of firemen gathered at one of Mandalay’s main fire stations to be dispatched to sites around the city.
The night before, rescuers had pulled a woman out alive from the wreckage of a collapsed apartment building, with applause ringing out as she was carried by stretcher to an ambulance.
Myanmar’s ruling junta said in a statement Saturday that at least 1,644 people were killed and more than 3,400 injured in the country, with at least 139 more missing.
But with unreliable communications, the true scale of the disaster remains unclear in the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid on Friday, indicating the severity of the calamity.
This combo of satellite images shows the Inwa bridge over the Irrawaddy River on Sunday March 23, 2025, top, and the bridge collapsed after the earthquake, in Mandalay, Myanmar, on March 29, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
AP
Previous military governments have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.
Myanmar has already been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.
Anti-junta fighters in the country have declared a two-week partial ceasefire in earthquake-affected regions starting Sunday, the shadow “National Unity Government” said in a statement.
The government in exile said it would “collaborate with the UN and NGOs to ensure security, transportation, and the establishment of temporary rescue and medical camps” in areas that it controls, according to the statement, which was released on social media.
Aid agencies have warned that Myanmar is unprepared to deal with a disaster of this magnitude.
Some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger, even before the earthquake struck.
Bangkok building collapse
Across the border in Thailand, rescuers in Bangkok worked Sunday to pluck out survivors trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed after the Friday earthquake.
At least 11 people have been killed in the Thai capital, with dozens more still trapped under the immense pile of debris where the skyscraper once stood.
Bangkok authorities were expected to release another statement at 9 am (0200 GMT), with fears of a further toll increase.
Workers at the site used large mechanical diggers in an attempt to find victims still trapped on Sunday morning.
Sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones have also been deployed to seek signs of life in the collapsed building, close to the Chatuchak weekend market popular among tourists.
Authorities said they would be deploying engineers to assess and repair 165 damaged buildings in the city on Sunday.
Published – March 30, 2025 08:34 am IST
