More than 1,600 dead as Myanmar toll rises

Rescue workers battled for a second night to find survivors of Myanmar's devastating earthquake, which has killed at least 1,644 people and injured thousands more.

- Rebecca Ratcliffe

Teams with little protective equipment, at times using only their bare hands, scrambled to free survivors from the rubble of countless buildings that were shattered by Friday's 7.7-magnitude earthquake.

There was a brief moment of joy yesterday evening for exhausted emergency workers as a 30-year-old woman was rescued alive after more than 30 hours trapped beneath an apartment building in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-biggest city and one of the worst affected areas.

Phyu Lay Khaing, who was brought out of the Sky Villa Condominium by stretcher, was embraced by her husband, Ye Aung, and taken to hospital, AFP reported. It is feared more than 90 people remain trapped there.

In Thailand Bangkok's governor, Chadchart Sittipunt, said the search for construction workers at the site of a collapsed 30-storey building in the capital would continue. "We believe that there are still survivors.