CHIANG MAI/BANGKOK –The death toll from Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar has soared to more than 1,000 as the the first foreign aid arrived in affected areas.
MRTV, a state broadcaster, announced on the Telegram app on Saturday that 1,002 people had died across the country, 2,376 were injured and 30 had been reported missing but stressed that “data collection is still ongoing.” It earlier reported 694 people had been confirmed killed in and around the city of Mandalay, which is 17 kilometers from the epicenter of the quake.
The broadcaster added that damaged buildings in and around Mandalay included 1,591 houses, 670 monasteries and 60 schools.
At least a dozen people are thought to have died in Thailand and 96 are missing, according to officials.
Myanmar’s military regime declared a state of emergency in six regions, and Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the government, visited Mandalay on Saturday, MRTV reported. At a meeting with Mandalay regional government officials, the general reportedly “instructed them to carry out search and rescue operations as soon as possible and to take necessary measures.”
Relief efforts in Myanmar are being hampered by a lack of power in Mandalay, and the largest city, Yangon, and the civil war that has erupted since the military seized power in 2021. Some of the affected areas are controlled by the regime and some by opposition groups.
The authorities said electricity in Yangon would be limited to four hours a day beginning Saturday. There were also long lines for fuel at gas stations in the city.
One man in Mandalay told Nikkei Asia many people were still too afraid to return to their homes. Minor aftershocks were reported during the night.
China’s embassy in Myanmar announced a team of 37 rescue workers had flown to Yangon, the country’s biggest city, and it would “head to Naypyitaw, where the damage has been extensive.”
“It is the first international rescue team to arrive in Myanmar within 18 hours of the earthquake, demonstrating the China-Myanmar Pauk Paw friendship and shared community spirit,” the embassy said.
Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar wrote on X that India had dispatched a first tranche of aid to Myanmar that included blankets, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, sleeping bags, solar lamps, food packets and kitchen sets. Rescue and medical teams were sent on the same flight, he added
The United Nations emergency relief coordinator made an initial allocation of $5 million for recovery efforts. “The earthquake will compound an already dire humanitarian situation in Myanmar, where nearly 20 million people need assistance across the country, including more than 3.5 million people displaced from their homes,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Western countries have largely cut off relations with Myanmar but the European Commission announced the EU was “releasing 2.5 million euros ($2.3 million) in initial emergency assistance,” a statement says. “The Commission, together with our humanitarian partners, is assessing the situation and [the] needs on the ground, in order to mobilise further EU assistance.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. was ready to send relief assistance to Myanmar but did not give any details.
ASEAN foreign ministers on Saturday issued a statement expressing their “deepest sympathies and condolences to the people of Myanmar and Thailand.” In response to the recent tragedy, the association said it “stands ready to support relief and recovery efforts.”
Authorities in Thailand on Saturday appealed for help to rescue 96 people still missing after a partially built State Audit Office tower block collapsed in Bangkok. Eight people have been confirmed dead at that site, according to officials there, and four elsewhere in the city.
Many of the people who had been building the tower block came from Myanmar. Moe Kyaw Aung, who works on a different project in Bangkok, told Nikkei Asia that his cousin, Aung Ye Soe, and three of his friends, all from Myanmar, had been working above the 20th floor of the building on Friday. All are missing in the rubble.
“He’s like my blood brother,” Moe Kyaw Aung said tearfully at the site, where rescue efforts were continuing on Saturday.
Rescuers are currently trying to reach five or six survivors in a cluster near the front of the site. But the effort is slow-going as Thai authorities are inexperienced in earthquake disasters, and asked for help and expertise from other countries like Japan.
Suchatchavee Suwansawas, a professor of civil engineering, deputy leader of the Democrat Party and a Bangkok MP, said it was too early to say why the tower collapsed but added that something was clearly wrong with the design because it was the only building in Bangkok that was destroyed. He was among the hundreds of volunteer engineers mobilized by the Bangkok administration to help with the rescue effort.
Prime Minster Paetongtarn Shinawatra told Thai media on Saturday: “I have ordered relevant agencies to check all building to be ready for those who will resume working on March 31,” adding that the government is preparing compensation for those who died and were injured in the earthquake.She also visited injured people at Vachira hospital, telling them that the king would cover all their bills.
The premier traveled by the MRT subway, which like other public transportation resumed normal operations on Saturday, to check on the safety of buildings in the Silom Road financial district. She mingled with foreign tourists and tried to reassure them that the government would do everything it could to ensure people’s safety.
Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has ordered provincial officers to check all high buildings in the 13 provinces that have been affected by the earthquake, particularly in Chiang Mai, a famous northern tourist destination, where there were reports of cracks on several condominiums and other buildings.
Additional reporting by Dominic Oo in Bangkok and Sayan Chakraborty in Bengaluru
