Bangkok | Myanmar's ruling military said Saturday on state television that the confirmed death toll from a devastating earthquake rose to more than 1,600.
The new total of 1,644 is a sharp rise over the 1,002 total announced just hours earlier, underlining the difficulty of confirming casualties over a widespread region and the likelihood that the numbers will continue to grow from Friday's quake.
The number of injured increased to 3,408, while the missing figure rose to 139.
Rescue efforts are underway especially in the major stricken cities of Mandalay and Naypyitaw, the capital. But even though teams and equipment have been flown in from other nations, they are hindered by the airports in those cities being damaged and apparently unfit to land planes.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, is in the throes of a prolonged and bloody civil war, which is already responsible for a massive humanitarian crisis. It makes movement around the country both difficult and dangerous, complicating relief efforts and raising fears that the death toll could still rise precipitously.
The earthquake struck midday Friday with an epicentre not far from Mandalay, followed by several aftershocks including one measuring a strong 6.4 magnitude. It sent buildings in many areas toppling to the ground, buckled roads, caused bridges to collapse and burst a dam.
In the capital Naypyidaw, crews worked Saturday to repair damaged roads, while electricity, phone and internet services remained down for most of the city. The earthquake brought down many buildings, including multiple units that housed government civil servants, but that section of the city was blocked off by authorities on Saturday.
More damage in Thailand
In neighbouring Thailand, the quake rocked the greater Bangkok area, home to some 17 million people, and other parts of the country.
Bangkok city authorities said so far six people have been found dead, 26 injured and 47 are still missing, most from a construction site near the capital's popular Chatuchak market.
On Saturday, more heavy equipment was brought in to move the tons of rubble, but hope was fading among friends and family members of the missing that they would be found alive.
“I was praying that that they had survived but when I got here and saw the ruin — where could they be? In which corner? Are they still alive? I am still praying that all six are alive,” said 45-year-old Naruemol Thonglek, sobbing as she awaited news about her partner, who is from Myanmar, and five friends who worked at the site.
“I cannot accept this. When I see this I can't accept this. A close friend of mine is in there, too,” she said.
Waenphet Panta said she hadn't heard from her daughter Kanlayanee since a phone call about an hour before the quake. A friend told her Kanlayanee had been working high on the building on Friday.
“I am praying my daughter is safe, that she has survived and that she's at the hospital,” she said, Kanlayanee's father sitting beside her.
Thai authorities said that the quake and aftershocks were felt in most of the country's provinces. Many places in the north reported damage to residential buildings, hospitals and temples, including in Chiang Mai, but the only casualties were reported in Bangkok
Myanmar sits on a major fault line
Earthquakes are rare in Bangkok, but relatively common in Myanmar. The country sits on the Sagaing Fault, a major north-south fault that separates the India plate and the Sunda plate.
Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said it appears a 200-kilometre section of the fault ruptured for just over a minute, with a slip of up to 5 metres in places, causing intense ground shaking in an area where most of the population lives in buildings constructed of timber and unreinforced brick masonry.
“When you have a large earthquake in an area where there are over a million people, many of them living in vulnerable buildings, the consequences can often be disastrous,” he said in a statement.
“From initial reports, that seems likely to be the case here.”
A natural disaster on top of a civil war
Myanmar's government said blood was in high demand in the hardest-hit areas. In a country where prior governments sometimes have been slow to accept foreign aid, Min Aung Hlaing said Myanmar was ready to accept outside assistance.
Myanmar's military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, and is now involved in a bloody civil war with long-established militias and newly formed pro-democracy ones.
Military forces continued their attacks even after the quake, with three airstrikes in northern Kayin state, also called Karenni state, and southern Shan — both of which border Mandalay state, said Dave Eubank, a former US Special Forces soldier who founded the Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian aid organisation that has provided assistance to both combatants and civilians in Myanmar since the 1990s.
Eubank told The Associated Press that in the area he was operating in, most villages have already been destroyed by the military so the earthquake had little impact.
“People are in the jungle and I was out in the jungle when the earthquake hit — it was powerful, but the trees just moved, that was it for us, so we haven't had a direct impact other than that the Burma army keeps attacking, even after the quake,” he said.
In northern Shan, an airstrike on a rebel-controlled village just minutes after the earthquake killed seven militia members and damaged five buildings, including a school, Mai Rukow, editor of a Shan-based online media Shwe Phee Myay News Agency, told the AP.
Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places are incredibly dangerous or simply impossible for aid groups to reach. More than three million people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.
“Although a full picture of the damage is still emerging, most of us have never seen such destruction,” said Haider Yaqub, Myanmar country director for the NGO Plan International, from Yangon.
“Without a doubt, the humanitarian needs will be significant.”
Control tower at Myanmar's Naypyitaw International Airport collapsed
Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analysed by the AP show the earthquake toppled the air traffic control tower at Naypyitaw International Airport as if sheered from its base.
Debris lay scattered from the top of the tower, which controlled all air traffic in the capital of Myanmar, the photos showed on Saturday.
It wasn't immediately clear if there had been any injuries in the collapse, though the tower would have had staff inside of it at the time of the earthquake Friday.
It likely also stopped air traffic into the international airport, given all electronics and radar would have been routed into the tower for controllers.
Flights carrying rescue teams from China have landed at the airport in Yangon instead of going directly to the airports in the major stricken cities of Mandalay and Naypyitaw.
Rescue groups head to Myanmar
China and Russia are the largest suppliers of weapons to Myanmar's military, and were among the first to step in with humanitarian aid.
China said it has sent more than 135 rescue personnel and experts along with supplies like medical kits and generators, and pledged some USD 13.8 million in emergency humanitarian aid.
Russia's Emergencies Ministry said it had flown in 120 rescuers and supplies.
India also sent a search and rescue team and a medical team and Malaysia said it would send 50 people on Sunday.
South Korea said it would provide USD 2 million worth of humanitarian aid through international organisations, and the UN allocated USD 5 million to start relief efforts.
President Donald Trump said Friday that the US was going to help with the response, but some experts were concerned about this effort given his administration's deep cuts in foreign assistance.
