Disaster aid for quake- hit nations

FOREIGN rescue teams began flying into Myanmar yesterday to aid the search for survivors from an earthquake that killed close to 1,000 people in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation crippling critical infrastructure and a grinding civil war.

- 

The death toll in Myanmar was 1,002, the military government said, up sharply from initial state media reports of 546 dead on Friday.

At least nine people were killed in neighbouring Thailand, where the 7.7-magnitude quake rattled buildings and brought down a skyscraper under construction in the capital Bangkok, trapping 30 people under debris, with 89 still missing.

The US Geological Service’s predictive modelling estimated the death toll could exceed 10,000 in Myanmar and that the quake could exceed the country’s annual economic output.

Thousands of damaged roads, bridges and buildings in Myanmar, according to the junta, whose top general made a rare call for international assistance on Saturday.

“Search and rescue operations are currently being carried out in the affected areas,” the junta said in a statement on state media on Saturday.

The Southeast Asian bloc (Asean) said it would ensure timely and effective humanitarian response in Myanmar. China would provide Myanmar with 100 million yuan (about $2.54 billion) worth of aid, state media said.