Yangon: The death toll from the 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar has risen to 2,719, with approximately 4,521 people injured and 441 others still missing, said the country's Prime Minister Min Aung Hlaing.
Relief efforts have been hampered due to fuel shortages, intermittent communications, and power outages, media reports said. A Reuters report said that search and rescue operations have been hit due to a shortage of heavy equipment, and many people are now forced to look for survivors manually in temperatures that regularly surpass 40 degrees Celsius.
Speaking to journalists from Yangon, Julia Rees, Deputy Representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the country described seeing massive needs rising by the hour, after the late last week's 7.7 magnitude quake.
“Entire communities have been flattened,” she said, with children and families sleeping out in the open with no homes to return to. “I met children who were in shock after witnessing their homes collapsed or the death of a family member… some have been separated from their parents and others are unaccounted for,” she explained.
Myanmar's Department of Meteorology and Hydrology reported that 36 aftershocks, with magnitudes ranging from 2.8 to 7.5, occurred as of March 31 morning. The epicentre was only about 20 km from Mandalay, the country's second-largest city with a population of 1.5 million.
The earthquake is the strongest by magnitude so far this year, according to the United States Geological Survey. Tremors were felt in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and southwest China. In Thailand, 10 people were killed and 42 others injured, with 78 others remaining missing in the capital of Bangkok, authorities said.
