People yesterday scoured collapsed buildings searching for survivors as aftershocks rattled the devastated city of Mandalay, two days after a massive earthquake killed at least 1,700 people in Myanmar and at least 18 in neighboring Thailand.
The initial magnitude 7.7 quake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock.
The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with mass destruction seen in the city of more than 1.7 million people.
Photo: Reuters
Tea shop owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a collapsed restaurant on a main road in his neighborhood early yesterday, tossing bricks aside one by one.
“About seven people died here” when the quake struck, he said. “I’m looking for more bodies, but I know there cannot be any survivors.”
About an hour later, a small aftershock struck, sending people scurrying out of a hotel for safety, following a similar tremor felt late on Saturday evening.
At about 2pm, a magnitude 5.1 aftershock sent people into the streets in alarm once again, temporarily halting rescue work.
The night before, rescuers had pulled a woman out alive from the wreckage of a collapsed apartment building, with applause ringing out as she was carried by stretcher to an ambulance.
Myanmar’s ruling junta in a statement yesterday afternoon said that about 1,700 people were confirmed dead so far, about 3,400 injured and about 300 more missing.
However, the true scale of the disaster remains unclear in the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.
At a destroyed Buddhist examination hall in Mandalay, Chinese responders yesterday worked to find buried victims.
So far, 21 people have been rescued, while 13 bodies have been recovered, but at least two more people were still believed alive in the rubble, rescuers said.
San Nwe Aye, sister of a 46-year-old monk missing in the collapsed hall, appeared in deep distress, and said that she has heard no news about his status.
“I want to hear the sound of him preaching,” she said. “The whole village looked up to him.”
Burmese State Administration Council Chairman Min Aung Hlaing on Friday issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid, indicating the severity of the calamity.
Previous military governments have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.
Myanmar has already been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.
Reports have emerged of sporadic fighting even after the quake, with one rebel group yesterday saying that seven of its fighters were killed in an aerial attack soon after the tremors hit.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
RSS