The official number of deaths of the earthquake that destroyed the central Myanmar exceeded 1,600 people, the country’s military leaders said on Saturday, as desperate rescue workers ran to find survivors and began to fight with a monumental catastrophe.
The strong earthquake hit Friday near Mandalay, the country’s second largest city, and the volunteer emergency workers there combed the ruins of apartments, monasteries and mosques, searching for someone who left alive. Seismic directions and roads caused the road buck. Employees had no equipment, such as excavators and workers, as the repressive military authorities kept a careful eye.
“There are at least a hundred people who are still trapped in,” said Thaw Zin, a volunteer sitting in front of a destroyed conjunction. “We try our best with what we have.”
The number of deaths is expected to increase abruptly, although the military junta of Myanmar, which overthrew an elected government in 2021, tried to limit the information that is leaving the country. Modeling by the United States Geological Survey has suggested that the number of deaths would probably exceed 10,000.
The earthquake raised questions about whether Myanmar military leaders can be able to stay in power, having already lost ground in rebels in a bloody civil war that has left about 20 million out of about 54 million people in the country without enough food or no food.
Even after the disaster, Myanmar military aircraft dropped bombs on Friday night in a village of revolutionaries, Naung Lin, in the northern Shan state. “I just can’t believe they were making air raids at the same time as the earthquake,” said Lway Yal Oo, a resident of Naung Lin.
Anger against the army increased after the disaster on Saturday. Mr Thaw Zin, a volunteer at Mandalay, said the soldiers and police officers had appeared in disasters, but did nothing to help. “They are here with their weapons,” he said. “We don’t need weapons. We need auxiliary hands and hearts.”
But the junta has also recognized the huge extent of the disaster, which caused a building to collapse 600 miles away to Bangkok and sent shock waves around Southeast Asia. The military government has declared emergency situation in six areas of Myanmar, including guerrilla -controlled areas where millions of displaceds live with a rare internet.
Army leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, was asked disaster sites on Friday and visited a makeshift hospital in Naypyitaw, about 170 miles south of Mandalay, showed state media.
The junta, although isolated and in sanctions from much of the world, also made an excellent appeal for help – a call that some have begun to respond despite the stunning obstacles of logistical support to get this help to the survivors.
Employees for help should cross the streets and destructive areas, in a country divided by a full civil war and competitive warlords, weapons representatives, human traffickers and drug unions. There are risks that the army could interfere with assistance, experts said and even the transfer of funds to Myanmar are complicated by the rules related to penalties and money.
India, which is sharing a long border with Myanmar, sent 15 tonnes of help and more than 100 medical experts, her foreign minister said and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said she had spoken to Junta’s leader, offering help to a “close friend”.
China, which also borders mynmaris and has supplied the junta’s weapons, even as evidence, has increased by its military atrocities, threw dozens of search and rescue workers in the country on Saturday. Beijing was also planning to send about $ 14 million to help, including scenes, first aid kits and drinking water, according to Chinese media.
South Korea promised $ 2 million aid, which is sent through international humanitarian organizations, and the Malaysian government said it would send two groups of 50 people to support relief.
But it remained away from the kind of response that some of the richest nations in the world would offer or how. Although President Trump said the United States will “help”, its administration has moved to everyone, but eliminates the main US service to distribute assistance and the United States, Britain and other countries have imposed major sanctions on the Huta.
Even for countries more friendly to military leaders of Myanmar, there are major obstacles. The first traditions of the aid sent by India and China went to the largest city of Myanmar, Yangon. They had to drive hundreds of miles north to reach Mandalay and other areas that are more affected by the earthquake.
In the disaster area, where the roads are damaged and destroyed and power disappears greatly, people have tried to store fuel and food. Dozens of people from other cities in Myanmar also pack their cars and trucks with supplies and headed to Mandalay, hoping to fight.
The ambulances entered the streets of Mandalay on Saturday, heading to a hospital two hours away with more space. Among the embankment of brick, cement and metal, where the buildings had come out two days earlier, some people began to lose hope.
“Yesterday we found some survivors, but today the chances are much lower,” said Ko Thien Win, who had rushed to the site of a destroyed apartment building in Mandalay.
In hospitals, many others stayed in a kind of cleaning, dealing with their injuries and fearing for the fate of their loved ones. Tay Zar Lin had taken mango when the ground began to move on Friday and fell, breaking his leg. He arrived at a hospital where he could not see a doctor until Saturday morning.
He then discovered that his wife was still trapped in the shelf where he worked, he said. “I pray that yesterday morning was not the last time I saw her,” he said.
Uncertainty has expanded far outside Myanmar, to the dispersion of people who have migrated from the country in recent decades. Richard Nee, one of the tens of thousands now living in Taiwan, said he and other former Mandalay residents were expecting a word from friends and family. He knew that a friend’s wife had died, apparently in a collapse of the building, but this sporadic communication had difficulty learning more.
One engineer said many buildings in Myanmar, who is in one of the most active seismic zones in the world, was built to endure earthquakes. “Many buildings were strong enough for perhaps 6 earthquake,” he said. “But anything over size 6, like this time, was too much.”
And many survivors of the earthquake already know the degrees of their loved ones.
When the earthquake struck and her apartment in Mandalay began to rise, SU Wai Lin, who is six months pregnant, managed to escape the building with her husband and her mother -in -law. But she said her husband ran back in to save their 90 -year -old neighbor. The building then collapsed, killing them.
“I can’t put in words the pain I feel,” he said, crying as he spoke to a hospital. “My child will be born without a father.”
David Pierson References are contributed by Hong Kong, Mujib mashal From New Delhi, Choe sang-hun and Shawn paik From Seoul, Chris buckley by Taiwan, Jenny gross from London and Hannah beech from Boston.
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