The death toll from the huge earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand exceeded 1,000 as rescuers delved into the tiled bleed of a building that collapsed in a desperate search of survivors.
At least 1,002 people have been killed and nearly 2,376 have been injured in Myanmar’s Mandalay region. This is the second largest city in the country and closest to the earthquake epicenter — the country said in a statement on Saturday.
“It was a rather unpleasant night for a lot of people. They chose to sleep outside. We saw them in the park where we put mattresses outside their home,” Al Jazeera’s Tony Chen reported from the capital, Napidau.
“There were still aftershocks and some things we felt this morning. They weren’t that big, but it’s enough to make people feel uncomfortable returning to the stacked structure,” he added.
Around 10 more people have been confirmed to have died in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, located 1,000 km (620 miles) from the Myanmar epicenter.
“Infrastructure such as roads, bridges and buildings has been affected, leading to civilian casualties and injuries. Search and rescue operations are currently being carried out in affected areas,” Myanmar’s military said in a statement, saying it will be experiencing sudden deaths from the 144 previously reported deaths.
The shallow 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck northwest of Sagar city in central Myanmar early Friday afternoon, followed by a 6.7 magnitude aftershock.
Earthquakes have destroyed buildings, knocked over bridges, bent over roads across Myanmar belts, and patchy communications in remote areas have led many to believe the true scale of the disaster has yet to emerge.
Harry Roberts, a volunteer at the International Disaster Relief Charity Shelter Box, said the situation in Myanmar is likely to be “very complicated” and “really serious”, given the unusual appeal of the government’s international support.
“The demands have to drip down to immigrants and customs, so non-governmental organizations like our own can get immediate assistance there,” Roberts said.
“This stage is primarily about gathering information and assessing accessibility to the country.”
Bangkok rescuers searched workers on Friday night, when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed, shrinking into a mountain of tiled rubs in seconds, trapped in a mountain of metal that was twisted by the force of shaking.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittypant said it has been confirmed that around 10 people have been killed in the city in the collapse of a skyscraper. However, up to 100 workers were still not recorded at the construction site, close to the weekend market in Chatuchak, a magnet for tourists.
“We do our best with the resources we have because all our lives matter,” Chadchart told reporters on the ground.
“Our priority is to act as quickly as possible to save everything,” the governor said.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from the location of the collapse of the skyscraper, said that Bangkok people are not used to the earthquake.
“We’ve had over 70 aftershocks in the last 24 hours,” he said.
“They don’t really feel here in Bangkok, but each report makes people very nervous. People are incredibly nervous that this may happen again.”
Bangkok city officials said they would deploy more than 100 engineers to inspect the building for safety in the city after receiving reports of more than 2,000 damage.
(Source: Al Jazeera)