THE death toll from a huge earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand passed 1,000 on Saturday, as rescuers dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings in a desperate search for survivors.
The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake struck northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar in the early afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
The quake destroyed buildings, downed bridges, and buckled roads across swathes of Myanmar, with massive destruction seen in Mandalay, the country’s second biggest city and home to more than 1.7 million people.
“We need aid,” said Thar Aye, 68, a resident of Mandalay. “We don’t have enough of anything.”
At least 1,007 people were killed and nearly 2,400 injured in Myanmar, with 30 more missing, the junta said in a statement. Around 10 more deaths have been confirmed in Bangkok.
But with communications badly disrupted, the true scale of the disaster is only starting to emerge from the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.
More than 90 people could be trapped in the crushed remains of one apartment block in Mandalay, a Red Cross official told AFP on Saturday.
Rescuers worked to free victims at the Sky Villa Condominium development, where several of the building’s 12 storeys were pancaked on top of each other.
This was the biggest quake to hit Myanmar in decades, according to geologists, and the tremors were powerful enough to severely damage buildings across Bangkok, hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from the epicentre.
In Mandalay, AFP journalists saw a centuries-old Buddhist pagoda that had been reduced to rubble.
“It started shaking, then it started getting serious,” said a soldier at a checkpoint on the road outside the pagoda.
“The monastery also collapsed. One monk died, some people were injured, we pulled out some people and took them to the hospital.”
Guards at Mandalay Airport turned away journalists.
“It has been closed since yesterday,” said one. “The ceiling collapsed but no one was hurt.”
Damage to the airport would complicate relief efforts in a country whose rescue services and healthcare system have already been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.