Myanmar junta chief arrives in Bangkok as quake toll rises

The head of Myanmar's junta arrived in Bangkok on Thursday for a regional summit as the death toll from his country's devastating earthquake passed 3,000.

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The head of Myanmar's junta arrived in Bangkok on Thursday for a regional summit as the death toll from his country's devastating earthquake passed 3,000.

Min Aung Hlaing will join a BIMSTEC gathering -representing the seven littoral nations of the Bay of Bengal-where he will raise the response to Friday's 7.7-magnitude quake.

The junta chief arrived at Bangkok's plush Shangri-La hotel, the venue for Friday's summit, amid tight security, journalists saw.

Many nations have sent aid and teams of rescue workers to Myanmar since the quake but heavily damaged infrastructure and patchy communications as well as a rumbling civil war - have hampered efforts.

Myanmar has been engulfed in a brutal multi-sided conflict since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing's military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Following reports of sporadic clashes even after Friday's quake, the junta joined its opponents on Wednesday in calling a temporary halt to hostilities to allow relief to be delivered.

Journalists saw hectic scenes on Thursday in the city of Sagaing - less than 15 kilometres from the epicentre - as hundreds of desperate people scrambled for emergency supplies distributed by civilian volunteers.