MANDALAY, MYANMAR: Residents scrambled desperately through collapsed buildings on Sunday ( Mar 30 )  , searching for survivors as aftershocks rattled the devastated city of Mandalay, two days after a massive earthquake killed more than 1, 600 people in Myanmar and at least 11 in neighbouring Thailand.
The first 7.7-magnitude collapse struck near the northern Myanmar town of Mandalay early Friday evening, followed moments later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
The spasms collapsed buildings, fallen bridges and cracked roads, with large destruction seen in the town of more than 1.7 million people.
As dawn broke on Sunday, drink store owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a crashed restaurant on a major road in his neighbourhood, tossing bricks off one by one.
” About seven people died here ( when the quake struck Friday )”, he told AFP. ” I’m looking for more body but I know there cannot be any individuals.
” We don’t understand how some body there could be but we are looking.”
About an hour later, a little tremor struck, sending individuals scurrying out of a hotel for health, following a comparable vibration felt late on Saturday night.
Truckloads of firefighters gathered at one of Mandalay’s key fire facilities to get dispatched to places around the area.
The night before, volunteers had pulled a girl out dead from the wreckage of a fell flat tower, with applause ringing out as she was carried by bed to an emergency.
Myanmar’s decision dictatorship said in a statement Saturday that at least 1, 644 people were killed and more than 3, 400 injured in the country, with at least 139 more lost.
But with uncertain communications, the true magnitude of the disaster remains questionable in the secluded military-ruled condition, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid on Friday, indicating the severity of the calamity.
Previous military governments have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.
Myanmar has already been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.
Anti-junta fighters in the country have declared a two-week partial ceasefire in quake-affected regions starting on Sunday, the shadow” National Unity Government” said in a statement.
The government in exile said it would” collaborate with the UN and NGOs to ensure security, transportation, and the establishment of temporary rescue and medical camps “in areas that it controls, according to the statement, which was released on social media.
Aid agencies have warned that Myanmar is unprepared to deal with a disaster of this magnitude.
Some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger, even before the quake struck.
BANGKOK BUILDING COLLAPSE
Across the border in Thailand, rescuers in Bangkok worked throughout Sunday to pluck out survivors trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed after the Friday earthquake.
At least 11 people have been killed in the Thai capital, with dozens more still trapped under the immense pile of debris where the skyscraper once stood.
Bangkok authorities were expected to release another statement at 9am with fears of a further toll increase.
Workers at the site used large mechanical diggers in an attempt to find victims still trapped on Sunday morning.
Sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones have also been deployed to seek signs of life in the collapsed building, close to the Chatuchak Weekend Market popular among tourists.
Authorities said they would be deploying engineers to assess and repair 165 damaged buildings in the city on Sunday.