Scramble for aid as Myanmar quake death toll hits 1,700

Hospitals are overwhelmed; residents in affected areas say there has been little help

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BANGKOK - The toll from Myanmar's earthquake continued to rise on March 30, as foreign rescue teams rushed to help the impoverished country, where hospitals were overwhelmed and some communities scrambled to mount rescue efforts with limited resources.

The 7.7-magnitude quake on March 28, one of Myanmar's strongest in a century, jolted the Southeast Asian nation, leaving about 1,700 people dead, 3,400 injured and over 300 more missing, the military government said.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing warned that the number of fatalities could go up, and his administration faced a challenging situation, state media reported, three days after he made a rare call for international assistance.

India, China and Thailand are among Myanmar's neighbours that have sent relief aid and teams, along with Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Russia.

"The destruction has been extensive, and humanitarian needs are growing by the hour," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.

"With temperatures rising and the monsoon season approaching in just weeks, there is an urgent need to stabilise affected communities before secondary crises emerge."

The devastation has piled more misery on Myanmar, already in chaos from a civil war that grew out of a nationwide uprising after a 2021 military coup ousted the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Critical infrastructure—bridges, highways, airports, railways—across the country of 55 million lay damaged, slowing humanitarian efforts, while a civil war that has battered the economy, displaced over 3.5 million people and debilitated the health system rages on.