Myanmar-Thailand earthquake death toll crosses 700, over 1,500 injured; India sends 15 tonnes of relief aid
Public Lokpal
March 29, 2025
Myanmar-Thailand earthquake death toll crosses 700, over 1,500 injured; India sends 15 tonnes of relief aid
New Delhi : The death toll from a huge earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand passed 700 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 severe damage reported in the second biggest city, Mandalay.
At least 694 people were killed and nearly 1,700 injured in Myanmar's Mandalay region - believed to be the worst affected - the ruling 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 has yet to emerge from the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.
It was the biggest quake to hit Myanmar in over a century, according to US geologists, and the tremors were powerful enough to severely damage buildings across Bangkok, hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from the epicentre.
Rescuers in the Thai capital laboured through the night searching for workers trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed, reduced in seconds to a pile of rubble and twisted metal by the force of the shaking.
Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt told AFP that around 10 people had been confirmed killed across the city, most in the skyscraper collapse.
But up to 100 workers were still unaccounted for at the building, close to the Chatuchak weekend market that is a magnet for tourists.
Even hospitals were evacuated, with one woman delivering her baby outdoors after being moved from a hospital building. A surgeon also continued to operate on a patient after evacuating, completing the operation outside, a spokesman told AFP.
Rare junta plea for help
But the worst of the damage was in Myanmar, where four years of civil war sparked by a military coup have ravaged the healthcare and emergency response systems.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid, indicating the severity of the calamity. Previous military regimes have shunned foreign assistance even after major natural disasters.
The country declared a state of emergency across the six worst-affected regions after the quake, and at one major hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw, medics were forced to treat the wounded in the open air.
India, France and the European Union offered to provide assistance, while the WHO said it was mobilising to prepare trauma injury supplies.
India has sent a humanitarian aid flight to Myanmar, its foreign minister said on Saturday, a day after the powerful quake caused widespread damage in its civil war-ravaged neighbour.
The IAF C-130J aircraft from AFS Hindon carried 15 tonnes of relief material, including tents, sleeping bags, blankets, ready-to-eat meals, water purifiers, hygiene kits, solar lamps, generator sets, and essential medicines such as paracetamol, antibiotics, cannulas, syringes, gloves, cotton bandages, and urine bags.
Agency
