Mandalay, Myanmar (AP) – The number of deaths of the earthquake that struck Myanmar has increased to more than 1,700 while more bodies have been removed from the rubble, the country led by the country on Monday.
The government spokesman, Major-General, Zaw Min Tun, told MRTV managed by the state that 3,400 others had been injured and more than 300 had disappeared. The army had previously pointed out 1,644 dead but did not provide specific figures in its update.
The earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck at noon on Friday, causing generalized damage, including in the capital Naypitaw and the second largest city, Mandalay.
It was the time of Friday prayers for the Muslim minority of the country during the sacred month of Ramadan, and some 700 worshipers were killed when the mosques collapsed, said Tun Kyi, member of the steering committee of the Muslim network of the Printemps of the Myanmar Revolution. It was not clear if they were already included in the official statement of the victims.
Tun Kyi said some 60 mosques had been damaged or destroyed when the earthquake struck, and videos published on the online information site of Irrawaddy showed several reversing mosques during the earthquake, and people fleeing the areas.
It is believed that the real number of people killed and injured through the couples of the regions is perhaps repeatedly the official figures, but with telecommunications failures and extreme challenges to move across the country, we know little about damage in many areas.
“We are really not clear about the magnitude of destruction at this stage,” the Associated Press, assistant director of Myanmar, told the International Rescue Committee.
There is a state of emergency in six regions, and Ellery said that her teams in the field and that their local partners are currently assessing where the needs are the most important, while providing emergency medical care, humanitarian supplies and another assistance.
“They spoke of a city near Mandalay where 80% of the buildings were collapsed, but it was not in the news because the telecommunications were slow,” she said.
“Even in areas where there is not as much impact, our partner told us on Saturday that there were field tasks preventing them from reaching one of the villages.”
The earthquake, centered near Mandalay – a city of approximately 1.5 million, dropped buildings and damaged other infrastructure such as city airport.
A lack of heavy machines has slowed research and rescue operations, forcing a lot to slowly search for survivors in the incessant heat, with daily temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
The earthquake also shocks neighboring Thailand and killed at least 18 people, many of whom on a construction site in Bangkok where a partially built shave has collapsed.
33 others were reported injured and 78 missing, mainly on the construction site near the popular catuchak market.
The heavy equipment was closed and the authorities urged spectators to be silent while using machines to try to detect all signs of life under the rubble.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt told journalists at the scene that signs had been detected on Sunday evening, although experts could not determine if it was a machine error.
Nevertheless, he said that he still had survivors of hope.
“Even if a life is saved, it is worth every effort,” he said.
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Rising reported from Bangkok. The journalist of Associated Press, Jerry Harmer, contributed to this story of Bangkok.
