Bangkok: Rescue workers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building in Myanmar’s capital Tuesday, but hope was fading of finding many more survivors of the violent earthquake that killed at least 2,000, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by a bloody civil war.
The Myanmar fire department in the Naypyitaw said the woman was successfully pulled from the rubble early Tuesday, 91 hours after being buried when the building collapsed in the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred at midday Friday.
The earthquake’s epicentre was near the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay, and so far, the military-run government has reported 2,065 people killed, more than 3,900 injured, and 270 missing.
Those figures are widely expected to rise, but the earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, leaving the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.
Most of the reports so far have come from Mandalay and Naypyitaw.
The World Health Organisation said overall, more than 10,000 buildings are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Myanmar.
The earthquake also rocked neighbouring Thailand, causing a high-rise building under construction to collapse and burying many workers.
Two bodies were pulled from the rubble Monday, but dozens were still missing. Overall, there were 20 people killed and 34 injured in Bangkok, primarily at the construction site.
AP
