Myanmar pleads for help after massive earthquake

Hundreds killed and injured after buildings collapse across region

- Rebecca Ratcliffe Esther J Sam Jones

Myanmar urged "any country, any organisation" to help with relief efforts yesterday following a powerful earthquake that killed and injured hundreds of people as buildings collapsed across the region.

By last night, at least 144 people had died and 732 were injured in Myanmar. Nine more deaths were confirmed in neighbouring Thailand, where a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok collapsed.

Min Aung Hlaing, the chief of Myanmar's junta, said he expected the death toll to rise and called for help - a rare request from the isolated military government.

The junta said blood was in high demand in the worst-affected areas as concerns grew about how rescuers would even reach some parts of a country already enduring a widespread humanitarian crisis.

The 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit central Myanmar at 12.50pm local time yesterday at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles). Its epicentre was about 11 miles from Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city.

Thai authorities said eight of the nine reported deaths had happened after a high-rise building crashed to the ground in the capital. Rescuers were last night searching for another 81 people trapped in the rubble. Damage was also reported in China.

In Myanmar, witnesses and local media said people had been killed in the city of Mandalay and in the towns Toungoo and Aungban. Hundreds of casualties were taken to a hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw, where injured people were being treated outside because of damage to the building

The scale of the damage in Myanmar is yet to become clear, though social media footage emerging from central regions showed many buildings collapsed or damaged.