BANGKOK (news agencies) — The death toll from Myanmar’s powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake keeps climbing amid rescue efforts.
The military government said Saturday that 1,644 people have been killed, with thousands of others injured and dozens missing. Myanmar’s main resistance movement, meanwhile, announced a partial ceasefire to facilitate relief efforts.
The earthquake struck midday Friday, followed by several aftershocks, including one that measured 6.4.
In Thailand, the quake rocked the greater Bangkok area, leaving 10 people dead.
Several countries, including Malaysia, Russia and China have dispatched rescue and relief teams.
Here is the latest:
Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, which coordinates the popular struggle against the ruling military, has announced a unilateral partial ceasefire to facilitate earthquake relief efforts.
An announcement said that its armed wing, the People’s Defense Force, will implement a two-week pause in offensive military operations starting Sunday in earthquake-affected areas.
It said it would “collaborate with the U.N. and nongovernmental organizations to ensure security, transportation, and the establishment of temporary rescue and medical camps,” in the areas it controls.
An initial situation report on earthquake relief efforts issued by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that it’s mobilizing with other groups, and $5 million has been allocated from a Central Emergency Response Fund for “life-saving assistance.”
“Supply infrastructure and communication towers were severely impacted, electricity and water services were disrupted, including in Yangon Region,” it noted. “Landline, mobile and internet networks remain unstable.”
The immediate planned measures include a convoy of 17 cargo trucks carrying critical shelter and medical supplies from China that is expected to arrive on Sunday, it said.
It noted the severe damage or destruction of many health facilities, and warned that a “severe shortage of medical supplies is hampering response efforts, including trauma kits, blood bags, anaesthetics, assistive devices, essential medicines, and tents for health workers.”
Myanmar’s ruling military said on state television that the confirmed death toll from the 7.7 magnitude earthquake increased to 1,644.
The new total is a sharp rise compared to the 1,002 total announced just hours earlier. The number of injured increased to 3,408, while the missing figure rose to 139 from Friday’s quake.
Russia has sent a medical team to Myanmar to care for earthquake victims, a Health Ministry official said.
According to Alexey Kuznetsov, the medics include specialists in infectious diseases, resuscitation and traumatology.
Separately, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said that two planes carrying Russian rescue workers have landed in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon.
Earlier, the ministry reported that a mission, including search and rescue teams, canine units, anaesthesiologists and psychologists, was on its way to the disaster-stricken country.
The ministry said that its rescue teams are equipped with “endoscopes and acoustic devices for searching for people in rubble up to 4.5 meters (nearly 15 feet) deep, as well as ground-penetrating radars and thermal imagers.”
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