Myanmar Quake Death Toll Hits 1,600

The smell of decaying bodies permeated the streets of Myanmar's second largest city yesterday, as people worked frantically by hand to clear rubble in the hope of finding someone still alive, two days after a massive earthquake struck that killed more than 1,600 people and left countless others buried.

- Pia LeeBrago, Bella Cariaso

The magnitude 7.7 quake hit midday Friday with an epicenter near Mandalay, bringing down scores of buildings and damaging other infrastructure like the city's airport.

Relief efforts have been hampered by buckled roads, downed bridges, spotty communications and the challenges of operating in a country in the midst of a civil war.

The search for survivors has been primarily conducted by local residents without the aid of heavy equipment, moving rubble by hand and with shovels in 41-degree-Celsius heat, with only the occasional tracked excavator to be seen.

A 5.1-magnitude aftershock Sunday afternoon prompted screams from those in the streets, and then the work continued.

Many of Mandalay's 1.5 million people spent the night sleeping on the streets, either left homeless by the quake - which also shook neighboring Thailand and killed at least 17 people there or worried that the continuing aftershocks might cause structures left unstable to collapse.