The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake struck northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
“We need aid,“ said Thar Aye, 68, a Mandalay resident. “We don’t have enough of anything.”
But with communications badly disrupted, the true scale of the disaster is only starting to emerge from the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.
After hours of painstaking work at the Sky Villa Condominium, half of whose 12 storeys were flattened by the quake, Phyu Lay Khaing, 30, was brought out and carried by stretcher to be embraced by her husband and taken to hospital.
“We cannot find him yet. I only have this child -- I feel so heartbroken,“ said Min Min Khine, 56, a staff cook at the building.
Elsewhere in Mandalay, AFP journalists saw dozens of people preparing to bed down for the night in the streets, preferring to sleep in the open rather than take the risk in quake-damaged buildings.
This was the biggest quake to hit Myanmar in decades, according to geologists, and the tremors were powerful enough to severely damage buildings across Bangkok, hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from the epicentre.
“The monastery also collapsed. One monk died, some people were injured, we pulled out some people and took them to the hospital,“ said a soldier at a nearby checkpoint.
Rare junta plea for help
The country declared a state of emergency across the six worst-affected regions after the quake, and at one major hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw, medics were forced to treat the wounded in the open air.
An initial aid delivery arrived from India, while China said it sent more than 80 rescuers to Myanmar and pledged $13.8 million in emergency assistance.
Bangkok building collapse
Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt told reporters that eight people had been confirmed dead in the building collapse so far, while at least eight others were rescued.
“I can’t describe how I feel -- it happened in the blink of an eye,“ said construction worker Khin Aung who escaped the collapse.
Sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones were deployed to seek signs of life in the rubble -- Chadchart said that the locations of about 30 people could be ascertained by radar.
Bangkok city authorities said they will deploy more than 100 engineers to inspect buildings for safety after receiving over 2,000 reports of damage.
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