Myanmar quake death toll hits 1,700 as aid scramble intensifies

BANGKOK (Reuters) -The toll from Myanmar's earthquake continued to rise on Sunday, as foreign rescue teams and aid rushed into the impoverished country, where hospitals were overwhelmed and some communities scrambled to mount rescue efforts with limited resources.

The 7.7-magnitude quake, one of Myanmar's strongest in a century, jolted the war-torn Southeast Asian nation on Friday, leaving around 1,700 people dead, 3,400 injured and over 300 missing as of Sunday, the military government said.

The junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, warned that the number of fatalities could go up and his administration faced a challenging situation, state media reported, three days after he made a rare call for international assistance.

India, China and Thailand are among Myanmar's neighbours that have sent relief materials and teams, along with aid and personnel from Malaysia, Singapore and Russia.

"The destruction has been extensive, and humanitarian needs are growing by the hour," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.

"With temperatures rising and the monsoon season approaching in just weeks, there is an urgent need to stabilise affected communities before secondary crises emerge."

The devastation has piled more misery on Myanmar, already in chaos from a civil war that grew out of a nationwide uprising after a 2021 military coup ousted the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Critical infrastructure - including bridges, highways, airports and railways - across the country of 55 million lie damaged, slowing humanitarian efforts while the conflict that has battered the economy, displaced over 3.5 million people and debilitated the health system rages on.

In some areas near the epicentre, residents told Reuters that government assistance was scarce, leaving people to fend for themselves.

"It is necessary to restore the transportation routes as soon as possible," Min Aung Hlaing told officials on Saturday, according to state media. "It is necessary to fix the railways and also reopen the airports so that rescue operations would be more effective."

The U.S. Geological Service's predictive modelling estimated Myanmar's death toll could top 10,000 and losses could exceed the country's annual economic output.

'NO AID, NO RESCUE WORKERS'

Hospitals in parts of central and northwestern Myanmar, including the second-biggest city, Mandalay, and the capital Naypyitaw, were struggling to cope with an influx of injured people, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said late on Saturday.

The quake also shook parts of neighbouring Thailand, bringing down an under-construction skyscraper and killing 18 people across the capital, according to Thai authorities.

At least 76 people remained trapped under the debris of the collapsed building, where rescue operations continued for a third day, using drones and sniffer dogs to hunt for survivors.

The opposition National Unity Government, which includes remnants of the previous administration, said anti-junta militias under its command would pause all offensive military actions for two weeks from Sunday.

The devastation in some areas of upper Myanmar, such as the town of Sagaing near the quake's epicentre, was extensive, said resident Han Zin.

"What we are seeing here is widespread destruction - many buildings have collapsed into the ground," he said by phone, adding that much of the town had been without electricity since the disaster hit and drinking water was running out.

"We have received no aid, and there are no rescue workers in sight."

Sections of a major bridge connecting Sagaing to nearby Mandalay collapsed, satellite imagery showed, with spans of the colonial-era structure submerged in the Irrawaddy river.

"With bridges destroyed, even aid from Mandalay is struggling to get through," Sagaing Federal Unit Hluttaw, a political association linked to the NUG, said on Facebook.

"Food and medicine are unavailable, and the rising number of casualties is overwhelming the small local hospital, which lacks the capacity to treat all the patients."

'CAN YOU HEAR ME CALLING OUT?'

In Mandalay, scores of people were feared trapped under collapsed buildings and most could not be reached or pulled out without heavy machinery, two humanitarian workers and two residents said.

"My teams in Mandalay are using work gloves, ropes and basic kits to dig and retrieve people," said one of the humanitarian workers. Reuters is not naming them because of security concerns.

"There are countless trapped and still missing. The death toll is impossible to count at the moment due to the number trapped and unidentified, if alive."

A video filmed by a Mandalay resident on Saturday and shared with Reuters showed patients in beds, some attached to drips, on the grounds outside a 500-bed orthopaedic hospital in the city.

Public and private health care facilities in Mandalay, including the Mandalay General Hospital and parts of Mandalay Medical University, were damaged by the quake, according to the World Health Organization.

Russian and Indian rescue workers were heading to Mandalay, and multiple teams of Chinese, Thai and Singapore rescue personnel have also arrived in the country.

In Bangkok, at the site of the collapsed 33-storey building, rescuers surrounded by shattered concrete piles and twisted metal continued their efforts to rescue dozens of workers trapped under the rubble.

Teerasak Thongmo, a Thai police commander, said his team of policemen and rescue dogs were racing against time to locate survivors, struggling to move around metal debris and sharp edges on an unstable structure.

"Right now, our team is trying to find anyone that might still be alive. Within the first 72 hours, we have to try and save those still alive," he said.

Near the rescue operations, relatives and friends of the missing and trapped construction workers waited for news. Some broke down.

"Ploy, Ploy, Ploy, my daughter, I'm here for you now!" one woman wailed, as she was hugged by two others. "Ploy, can you hear me calling out for you?"

(Reporting by Bangkok bureau, Shoon Naing and Wa Lone; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by William Mallard)