Myanmar earthquake death toll rises to 2,700

Rescue workers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building in Myanmar's capital on Tuesday, but hope was fading of finding many more survivors of the violent earthquake that killed over 2,700 people, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by a civil war.

- Associated Press

BANGKOK:

The fire department in Naypyitaw said the woman was successfully pulled from the rubble 91 hours after being buried when the building collapsed in the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit midday, on Friday. Experts say the likelihood of finding survivors drops dramatically after 72 hours. The head of Myanmar's military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, told a forum in Naypyitaw, that 2,719 people have now been found dead, with 4,521 others injured and 441 missing, Myanmar's Western News online portal reported.

Those figures are widely expected to rise, but the earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, leaving the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.