UN says window to find quake survivors closing, toll hits 3,000

Aid groups say urgent need for water, food and shelter; rebels at war with junta declares unilateral ceasefire; Thailand deaths rise to YI, search continues at collapsed tower

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Aid groups in Myanmar on Tuesday described scenes of devastation and desperation after an earthquake that killed more than 2,700 people, stressing an urgent need for food, water and shelter and warning the window to find survivors was fast closing.

Myanmar's military ruler Min Aung Hlaing in a televised address said the death toll from Friday's 7.7 magnitude quake was expected to surpass 3,000, having reached 2,719 on Tuesday, with 3,521 people injured and 7 missing. The quake, which struck at lunchtime on Friday, was the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian country in more than a century, toppling ancient pagodas and modern buildings alike. It inflicted significant damage on Myanmar's second city Mandalay and Naypyitaw, the capital the previous junta purpose-built to be an impregnable fortress.