Myanmar’s earthquake toll exceeds 1,600 dead in the middle of the search for survivors

The official number of deaths of the earthquake that destroyed the center of the center of Myanmar beat 1,600 people, said the country’s military leaders on Saturday, while desperate rescue workers ran to find survivors and began dealing with a monumental disaster in a nation already agreed by the civil war.

The powerful earthquake hit on Friday near Mandalay, the second largest city in the country, and volunteer workers there reviewed the ruins of apartments, monasteries and mosques in search of anyone who is alive. The earthquake knocked down the electric lines and caused the roads to be folded. The workers lacked teams as excavators and worked while the repressive military authorities watched.

“There are at least one hundred people trapped inside,” said Thaw Zin, a volunteer who was sitting in front of a destroyed condominium. “We are doing our best effort with what we have.”

The death toll is expected to increase abruptly, although the Miloanmar Military Board, which overthrew a government elected in 2021, has tried to restrict what information the country leaves. The United States geological service modeling suggested that the number of deaths probably exceed 10,000.

The earthquake has raised questions about whether Myanmar’s military rulers can remain in power, since they have already lost ground to the rebels amid a bloody civil war that has left almost 20 million of the approximately 54 million people in the country without sufficient food or refuge even before the earthquake, according to UN officials.

Even after he hit the disaster, Myanmar Military Jets threw bombs on Friday night in a village controlled by the rebels, Naung Lin, in the state of northern Shan. “I can’t believe they made air attacks at the same time as the earthquake,” said Lway Yal Oo, a Naung Lin resident.

The anger against the army was increasing following the disaster on Saturday. Mr. Thaw Zin, the volunteer in Mandalay, said that the soldiers and police officers had appeared in disaster sites, but did nothing to help. “They are going around with their weapons,” he said. “We do not need weapons, we need help of help and kind hearts.”

But the Board has also recognized the enormous reach of the catastrophe, which caused the collapse of a building 600 miles away in Bangkok and sent shock waves around Southeast Asia. The military government declared an emergency state in six regions of Myanmar, including areas controlled by rebels where millions of displaced people live with little Internet.

The army leader, General Senior Min Aung Hlaing, surveyed the disaster sites on Friday and visited an improvised hospital in Naypyitaw, about 170 miles south of Mandalay, showed the state media.

The Board, although isolated and low sanctions from much of the world, also made an extraordinary appeal of help, a call that some began to respond despite the vertiginous logistics obstacles to obtain that help to survivors.

Humanitarian workers will have to travel collapsed roads and devastated regions, in a country divided by the full -fledged civil war and the lords of competitive war, arms traffickers, traffickers of people and drug unions. There are risks that the military can interfere with the delivery of help, experts said, and even transfer funds to Myanmar are complicated by the rules involving sanctions and the movement of money.

India, who shares a long border with Myanmar, sent 15 tons of help and more than 100 medical specialists, said his Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had spoken with the Chief of the Board, offering help to “a close friend and neighbor.”

China, which also limits with Myanmar and has supplied the weapons of the Board, even when the evidence grew from their military atrocities, dozens of search and rescue workers flew to the country on Saturday. Beijing also planned to send almost $ 14 million in help, including tents, first aid kits and drinking water, according to Chinese state media.

South Korea promised $ 2 million in help, sent through international humanitarian agencies, and the Malaysian government said it would send two teams of 50 people to support the help work.

But it remained far from being clear what type of response would provide some of the richest nations in the world, or how. Although President Trump said that the United States “would be helping,” his administration has moved to all, except to eliminate the main US agency to distribute help, and the United States, Great Britain and other countries have imposed strong sanctions on the Board.

Even for the most friendly countries with the military rulers of Myanmar, there are great obstacles. The first help deliveries sent by India and China went to the largest city of Myanmar, Yangon. They would have to drive hundreds of miles to the north to reach Mandalay and other areas more affected by the earthquake.

In the disaster area, where roads are damaged and destroyed and energy has gone largely, people tried to stock up on fuel and food. Dozens of people from other cities in Myanmar also packed their cars and trucks with supplies and went to Mandalay, hoping to enter.

The ambulances stuck the streets of Mandalay on Saturday, addressing a hospital two hours away that had more space. Among the mounds of brick, cement and metal where buildings had been two days before, some people began to lose hope.

“Yesterday we found some survivors, but today the possibilities are much lower,” said Ko Thien Win, who had rushed to the site of an apartment building destroyed in Mandalay.

In hospitals, many others remained in a kind of purgatory, dealing with their own injuries and fearing the fate of their loved ones. Tay Tsar Lin had been picking mangoes when the ground began to tremble on Friday and fell, breaking his leg. He arrived at a hospital, where he couldn’t see a doctor until Saturday morning.

Then he discovered that his wife was still trapped within the tailor where he worked, he said. “I pray that yesterday morning it wasn’t the last time I saw her,” he said.

The uncertainty extended away from Myanmar, towards the diaspora of the people who have emigrated outside the country in recent decades. Richard Nee, one of tens of thousands who now live in Taiwan, said that he and other former Mandalay residents were waiting for him to become news of friends and family. He knew that a friend’s wife had died, apparently in a collapse of the building, but that sporadic communication had made it difficult to learn more.

An engineer said that many buildings in Myanmar, who are in one of the most active seismic areas in the world, had been built to support earthquakes. “Many buildings were strong enough to perhaps an earthquake of magnitude 6,” he said. “But anything above magnitude 6, like this time, was too much.”

And many survivors of the earthquake already know the fate of their loved ones.

When the earthquake hit and his apartment in Mandalay began to throw, his Wai Lin, which has six months pregnant, managed to escape the building with her husband and mother -in -law. But she said that her husband ran backwards to save her 90 -year -old neighbor. Then the building collapsed, killing them.

“I can’t express the pain I feel,” he said, crying while talking in a hospital. “My son will be born without a father.”

David Pierson Hong Kong contributed reports, Mashal New Delhi, Choe Sang-Hun and Shawn Paik of Seoul, Chris Buckley from Taiwan, Jenny Gross from London and Hannah Beech from Boston.