Reports indicate that more than 1,000 people have been killed in Myanmar and thousands more injured following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, the day before that was also felt in neighboring countries. Most of the fatalities are in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, and the city closest to the earthquake’s epicenter. Rescue workers are still scrambling to find survivors in Myanmar and in Thailand.
Officials say Emergency Workers and volunteers are digging out people with their bare hands, with rescue operations ongoing at an unfinished high-rise in Bangkok after it collapsed with around 100 construction workers unaccounted for and six dead. Myanmar’s junta government has issued a request for international help a rare plea from an isolated regime heavily sanctioned by Western powers.
Tight control by Myanmar’s army and the continued internal instability from the country’s civil war is however making it difficult to get accurate information about the disaster.