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WHO: earthquake has 'overwhelmed healthcare facilities' in Myanmar, with three hospitals reported destroyed
The World Health Organization said it has reports of three hospitals destroyed and 22 partially damaged in the region affected by Friday’s earthquake.
“The scale of deaths and injuries is not yet fully understood and the numbers are expected to increase,” the UN agency said, Associated Press reports.
The statement continued:
The earthquake’s devastation has overwhelmed healthcare facilities in the affected areas, which are struggling to manage the influx of injured individuals. There is an urgent need for trauma and surgical care, blood transfusion supplies, anaesthetics, essential medicines, and mental health support.
WHO earlier issued an urgent flash appeal for $8m (£6.1m / €7.4m) for emergency support.
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In a statement, the UN representative in Myanmar has said “our hearts go out to all those affected by this tragedy.”
Marcoluigi Corsi added:
The UN and its partners are urgently mobilising to support emergency response efforts and stand ready to assist all affected communities wherever they are.
Even before this earthquake, nearly 20 million people in Myanmar were in need of humanitarian assistance. This latest tragedy compounds an already dire crisis and risks further eroding the resilience of communities already battered by conflict, displacement, and past disasters.
Here is a broader view of the scene in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district, where a search and rescue operation remains ongoing amid the rubble of a collapsed 30-story building that was under construction when Friday’s earthquake struck.
Helen Davidson and Jason Tzu Kuan Lu in Taipei
More than a dozen foreign rescue teams have joined the effort in Myanmar. But a team from Taiwan – which has extensive earthquake response experience both at home and abroad, including the 2023 quake in Turkey and Northern Syria – was not among them.
A team comprising 120 rescue, medical and engineering personnel, as well as search dogs and 15 tonnes of equipment were assembled and placed on standby on Saturday. But instead they waited two days for deployment orders which never arrived. A spokesperson for the national fire agency said they don’t know why they didn’t receive an order.
Liu Shi-Fang, the minister of the interior, which oversees the department, told parliament on Monday the government had passed on the message they were ready to assist, but ultimately decided they could not guarantee the team’s safety because of the ongoing bombing in Myanmar.
“As a result, we have responded by standing down and returning to our normal operations,” Liu said.
However there remains speculation that Taiwan’s team was denied entry by Myanmar’s military rulers, who are closely aligned with China. Beijing routinely uses its power to block Taiwan’s participation in the international community. Both China and Hong Kong have rescue teams on the ground in Myanmar, where reports suggest more assistance is desperately needed.
Taiwan’s president, premier, and ministry of foreign affairs have all said in recent days that Taiwan was ready to assist, but the ministry said it had received no response from Thailand or Myanmar.
Citing local media, AFP reports that Thailand’s prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has called a meeting with government departments responsible for sending SMS alerts to the public, amid criticism of the response on Friday when the earthquake struck.
On Saturday Paetongtarn said “Our problem is that the sending of messages was slow and did not cover enough people.”
Another investigation is ongoing into why a skyscraper under construction collapsed in Bangkok due to the effects of the quake. AFP reports that several steel rods were taken from the rubble for testing on Monday afternoon.
Another body has been removed from the site of a collapsed high-rise building in Bangkok, Reuters reports, citing volunteer rescuer group Fire and Rescue Thailand. It brings Thailand’s confirmed death toll from last week’s earthquake to 19. At least 70 people are still unaccounted for in Thailand. The death toll in Myanmar is currently put at 1,700.
Reuters reports, citing Chinese news agency Xinhua, that four people have been pulled from under buildings in Mandalay, the city in Myanmar near the epicentre of Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake.
It quoted Yue Xin, head of a Chinese search and rescue team deployed to assist, saying “It doesn’t matter how long we work. The most important thing is that we can bring hope to the local people.”
The BBC has spoken to a resident in the Pyigyitagon area of Mandalay, who told the news service that people were feeling “hopeless and helpless”.
It quoted Ruate, who only gave his first name, saying “We haven’t dared sleep in our house since the earthquake happened on Friday. Power has been down and supplies are running out. Yesterday we saw bodies being brought out of collapsed buildings in our neighbourhood. It’s very sobering. We are feeling hopeless and helpless.”
WHO: earthquake has 'overwhelmed healthcare facilities' in Myanmar, with three hospitals reported destroyed
The World Health Organization said it has reports of three hospitals destroyed and 22 partially damaged in the region affected by Friday’s earthquake.
“The scale of deaths and injuries is not yet fully understood and the numbers are expected to increase,” the UN agency said, Associated Press reports.
The statement continued:
The earthquake’s devastation has overwhelmed healthcare facilities in the affected areas, which are struggling to manage the influx of injured individuals. There is an urgent need for trauma and surgical care, blood transfusion supplies, anaesthetics, essential medicines, and mental health support.
WHO earlier issued an urgent flash appeal for $8m (£6.1m / €7.4m) for emergency support.
AFP has spoken to relatives anxiously waiting at the site of a collapsed building in Bangkok.
Daodee Paruay said she had been at the site for two days, hoping for a miracle. Her brother was an electrician working on site, and he is believed to be under the rubble. “We wait, we wait.” she said.
Naruemol Thonglek was also there, hoping her boyfriend would be found. She told AFP she had lit incense and candles, prayed and wished, begging her boyfriend to return alive. “If you can hear my voice, if you’re still alive, please shout and let the officials know,” she said, calling out to him.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires showing the continued effects of Friday’s earthquake in Thailand. At least 18 people were confirmed dead, 33 injured, and 78 remain missing in Bangkok.
Reuters has a quick snap that Bangkok deputy governor Tavida Kamolvej has said a vital sign was detected in the wreckage of a high-rise building that collapsed in last week’s earthquake.
Associated Press reports that at the U Hla Thein monastery in Mandalay, 270 monks were taking a religious exam at the time the earthquake struck.
Rescue workers at the scene Monday said 70 were able to escape, but 50 have already been found dead, and 150 are still unaccounted for.
News agency AFP has spoken to people gathered for Eid prayers in the street in Mandalay on Monday.
Locals said that the minaret of the Sajja South mosque in the Muslim neighbourhood of Mawyagiwah crashed to the ground in the quake, killing 14 children and two adults. Earlier a Myanmar Muslim organization said more than 700 worshipers had been killed when the quake struck durign Friday prayers.
26-year-old Win Thiri Aung told AFP “In normal times, it is full of joy when it is Eid. Our hearts are light. This year, we are not like that. It is a test from Allah. It is a reminder from him that we need to turn towards him.”
The agency quoted Aung Myint Hussein, chief administrator of the Sajja North mosque, saying “We have to pray on the road, feeling sadness and loss. The situation is so dire that it’s hard to express what is happening. We were terrified when we saw the destruction. It feels as if our entire lives have been shattered by this series of tremors.”
Archie Bland
In today’s First Edition newsletter, my colleague Archie Bland looks at how Myanmar is the victim of a devastating natural disaster – but also how a set of interlocking political and military circumstances have badly exacerbated the crisis. Here is an excerpt …
Communications with many of the affected areas are poor, partly because many of them have been ravaged by the country’s ongoing civil war, with much of the country out of the control of the ruling junta.
Some of the factors causing that blackout predate the disaster: the military regime has shut off the internet and social media in recent years as part of its efforts to silence dissent. And hundreds of communication towers run by an army-controlled firm, Mytel, were destroyed by opponents of the regime in the aftermath of the February 2021 coup that brought them back to power.
Over the last few days, even the government’s own websites have been inaccessible. Phone lines are also down, which has made it very difficult to coordinate rescue efforts, and power networks may not be restored for several days.
As the scale of the disaster became clear, Myanmar’s junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, took the exceptionally rare step of calling for international assistance – a course that the then-dictatorship resisted even in 2008, when Cyclone Nargis killed more than 100,000 people.
You can read more here: Monday briefing – How a devastating natural disaster has been made worse by Myanmar’s brutal civil war
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Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wires from Myanmar, as rescue operations continue after Friday’s earthquake which has killed at least 1,700 people.
View of a collapsed building, in the aftermath of a strong earthquake, in Mandalay, Myanmar. Photograph: Reuters
Official death toll at over 1,700 as 60 mosques reported destroyed or damaged
A Myanmar Muslim organization says more than 700 worshipers were killed when the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the country at Friday prayer time during the holy month of Ramadan. The country’s military-led government has put the death toll so far at 1,7000, Associated Press reports.
The news agency states that it is not clear at this moment whether the 700 worshippers, reported dead by the Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network, are included in the government figures given by government spokesperson Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun on state television.
The government has put the number injured at 3,400, and said that more than 300 people are still missing. In a rare moment of hope a woman trapped beneath the remains of a hotel building for nearly 60 hours was pulled out alive on Monday.
World Health Organization issues flash appeal for $8m in humanitarian aid for Myanmar
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued an urgent flash appeal for $8m (£6.1m / €7.4m) for emergency support in Myanmar, after the devastating earthquake, which has killed at least 1,700 people according to official figures.
In a statement the organisation said:
Two powerful earthquakes have devastated central Myanmar, disrupting health services and putting thousands at risk of life-threatening injuries and disease outbreaks. WHO is responding at its highest level of emergency activation – deploying nearly three tonnes of emergency medical supplies within 24 hours and coordinating global emergency medical teams. WHO urgently needs $8m to deliver life-saving trauma care, prevent disease outbreaks, and restore essential health services over the next 30 days.
Welcome and opening summary …
Welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing live coverage of the humanitarian impact of the last week’s earthquake in Myanmar. Here are the headlines …
The death toll from the 7.7-magnitude quake that struck on Friday has surpassed 1,700 and flattened huge swathes of the South-east Asian nation, according to officials
A Myanmar Muslim organization says more than 700 worshipers were killed as the earthquake occurred durign Friday prayers. About 60 mosques were reported damaged or destroyed. Associated Press reports it is unclear if the figure of 700, given by the Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network, is in addition to the official toll
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a flash appeal for $8m (£6.1m / €7.4m) for emergency support in Myanmar
The US Geological Survey’s predictive modelling estimates Myanmar’s death toll could eventually top 10,000 and losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output
Red Cross officials said Myanmar was facing “a level of devastation that hasn’t been seen over a century in Asia”
In neighbouring Thailand, at least 18 people have been killed and rescue efforts are continuing at the site of a collapsed 30-storey tower in Bangkok. Rescuers are scrambling to find 78 people still missing
Rescuers freed a woman from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar’s Mandalay, officials said on Monday, offering a glimmer of hope that more survivors may be found
