Myanmar is 'Asia's worst disaster in 100 years'

Rescue volunteers, many of them poorly equipped residents, raced to find survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings across central Myanmar, two days after a huge earthquake killed more than 1,700 people and at least 18 in neighbouring Thailand.

- Rebecca Ratcliffe

Red Cross officials said Myanmar was facing "a level of devastation that hasn't been seen for a century in Asia", after a 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the centre of the country on Friday, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.

The quake damaged and destroyed countless buildings, including hospitals, damaged roads and bridges, and brought down power supplies, phone and internet connections.

"People who need help are continually calling us, but even now there are difficulties for them to reach us," said a rescue worker in Mandalay.

Ko Doe, a rescue worker in Sagaing, Myanmar, said his team believed as many as 100 bodies were still to be removed from collapsed buildings in the town.

"A bad smell is coming from the bodies that remain trapped and which we are unable to save immediately. We need backhoes, cranes, and heavy-duty diggers to retrieve the bodies," he said.

The scale of the devastation in Myanmar, which has been gripped by conflict for the past four years, could take days or even weeks to emerge, according to aid experts.

The US Geological Service's predictive modelling estimated Myanmar's death toll could top 10,000 and losses could exceed the country's annual economic output.

In neighbouring Thailand, rescue efforts continued at the site of collapsed tower, which fell to the floor while under construction, trapping dozens of workers.

Officials from the Bangkok metropolitan administration said signs of life had been detected in one area of the site early yesterday morning.