BANGKOK (AP) — The death toll from a massive earthquake in Myanmar last week exceeded 2,000, state media said Monday. Fifty children were killed when the kindergarten classroom collapsed. 700 Muslims attacked while praying at the mosque for Ramadan.
Earthquakes can exacerbate the outbreak of hunger and disease in a country that is one of the world’s most challenging places for humanitarian organisations to operate due to civil wars, aid groups and UN warnings.
The 7.7 magnitude tremor hit Friday, with the epicenter near Myanmar’s second largest city of Mandalay. It destroyed the city’s airport, bent down the roads, and collapsed hundreds of buildings along the wide strip of the country’s heart.
Power outages, fuel shortages and uneven communications have further hindered relief efforts. A shortage of heavy machines slowed search and rescue operations, forcing many to manually search for survivors at daily temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
Mandalay rescuers collapsed the u hla thein monastery. They said they are still looking for around 150 deaths.
About 700 Muslim worshipers who attended Friday’s prayers were killed when the mosque collapsed, said Tong Ki, a member of the Myanmar Muslim Spring Revolution steering committee. He said about 60 mosques had been damaged or destroyed. A video posted on Irrawaddy’s online news site shows several mosques falling.
It was not clear whether these numbers were already included in the official tolls.
Myanmar MRTV reported that Senior General Min Ang Fuhring, the leader of the military government, told the Pakistani prime minister that he called on 2,065 people dead, more than 3,900 injured and about 270 people missing.
Relief agencies expect these numbers to rise sharply as access to remote areas where communications are down will slow.
The United Nations Myanmar Country Team sought unhindered access to the aid team.
“Even before this earthquake, nearly 20 million people in Myanmar needed humanitarian assistance,” said Markolji Korsi, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator.
The complete extent of devastation is not clear
“We are not really clear about the scale of the destruction at this stage,” Lauren Ellarie, deputy director of the International Rescue Committee for Myanmar’s programme, told The Associated Press. “They were talking about a town near Mandalay, where 80% of the buildings reportedly collapsed, but due to slow communications, it wasn’t in the news.”
The group that the IRC works for reported that landslides block some areas, she said.
The World Health Organization said there are reports of three hospitals being destroyed in the area and 22 hospitals being partially damaged.
“Trauma and surgical care, blood transfusion supply, anesthetics, essential medicines and support for mental health are urgently needed,” he said.
More than 10,000 buildings have been collapsed or significantly damaged in central and northwest Myanmar, the UN Humanitarian Organization said. One kindergarten classroom building collapsed in the Mandalay area, killing 50 children and two teachers, he said.
An artificial intelligence analysis of Mandalay satellite imagery by Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab showed 515 buildings with 80% to 100% damage and 1,524 buildings with 20% to 80% damage. The proportion of city buildings expressed was not clear.
The civil war drove millions away
Rescue operations are also complicated by the Civil War. In 2021, the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, causing what turned into serious armed resistance.
One group has declared a partial, one-sided ceasefire, but the government and other armed groups have not stopped the fight.
Government forces lost control of most of Myanmar, and many locations were dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach even before the earthquake. According to the United Nations, more than 3 million people have been evacuated due to the battle.
Elary, the International Rescue Commission, said last year that the worst hit from the earthquake was severely damaged by the flood, and that many displaced people called for evacuation there.
Since the earthquake, many people have slept outside because their homes had been destroyed or feared aftershocks.
She said monsoon rains began in May and finding shelter for people will be a major challenge.
Myanmar’s neighbors and allies send aid
International rescue teams from several countries are on the scene, including Russia, China, India and several Southeast Asian countries.
On Monday, an Indian team jackahammered a fallen concrete slab at one site in Mandalay. They could see them pull out one body.
The European Union, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea have announced millions of dollars of aid.
The US embassy said the US embassy is on its way to Myanmar. The embassy said it would provide up to $2 million through local organizations.
Looking for survivors in Bangkok
A small number of US military personnel were sent to support Bangkok. Bangkok’s earthquake killed at least 18 people. Many collapsed at construction sites where skyscrapers collapsed. Another 33 people have been reportedly injured and 78 are missing, mostly at construction sites near the popular Chatuchak market.
On Monday, heavy machinery was temporarily closed at the scene, and authorities urged onlookers to stay silent as they used machines to detect signs of life.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittypant told reporters that the sign was detected on Sunday night, but experts could not determine whether it was a machine error.
Seeing the crew at work, Naremon Tornlek said that she “created peace” with the fact that her partner and five friends there are unlikely to be alive.
“Part of me still want them to survive,” she said.
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This story was updated to correct that 200 monks were reportedly killed.
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Associated Press journalists Jerry Harmer and Jintamas Saksornchai of Jintamas Saksornchai and Jon Gambrell of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to the report.
