BANGKOK – A powerful earthquake [struck central Myanmar on March 28,](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/quake-hits-myanmar-tremors-felt-in-bangkok) gouging open roads, toppling century-old religious monuments and destroying multistory buildings as it shook a vast expanse of South-east Asia and dealt another severe blow to a country that has been ripped apart by civil war.
While the death toll remains unclear, expert estimates warned it could be extraordinary, given the dense population and vulnerable structures near the epicenter, just outside Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city. Modelling by the US Geological Survey estimated that the death toll was likely to surpass 10,000, and that there was a strong possibility of a much higher toll.
A preliminary count from Myanmar’s military government said that at least 144 people had been killed and 732 injured in just three cities, but that did not include Mandalay.
The quake, measured by the USGS at magnitude 7.7, was strong enough that it leveled a 33-storey building that was under construction more than 600 miles away in Bangkok, in neighbouring Thailand. At least eight people were confirmed dead there, and dozens more were missing, according to authorities. They were all presumed to be members of the 320-person crew of workers who were putting up the new building for the Thai government.
The earthquake, which struck about 12.50pm local time, was only the third of its size to hit the region in the past century, and the USGS analysis placed the epicentre just 10 miles from the heart of Mandalay, a city of about 1.5 million people. An aftershock of magnitude 6.7 was recorded about 11 minutes later, the first of several sizeable tremors that followed the first one.
The shaking was felt as far away as Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand and southern China, where state news media reported that an unspecified number of people had been injured in Ruili, near the Myanmar border. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra of Thailand declared Bangkok an “area of emergency” and urged residents to evacuate tall buildings in case of aftershocks.
In Myanmar, as bleeding victims were rushed to hospitals by ambulance, car and motorbike, a surgeon at Mandalay General Hospital said so many people had arrived for treatment that nurses had run out of cotton swabs and that he had nowhere to stand.
“More injured people keep arriving, but we do not have enough doctors and nurses,” said the surgeon, Dr Kyaw Zin. Because phone lines were down, he said, he was unsure if his parents had survived.
“But I can’t go back home yet,” he said. “I have to save lives here first.”
Dozens of patients at the hospital – the main medical centre in Mandalay – fled the building when it jolted and shuddered, jamming together in a nearby parking lot.
Some patients were still connected to intravenous drips and oxygen tanks. Others had their heads and arms bandaged and were lined up on stretchers, moaning. Many more were lying on cardboard, or directly on the concrete in the 100-degree heat.
Outside the hospital, Daw Kyi Shwin, 45, who was bleeding heavily, said her three-year-old daughter had been killed when their house began to collapse while they were having lunch. “I tried to run to her,” she said, “but before I could, bricks fell on me, too.”
Photos and videos from Myanmar showed scenes of stunning devastation. The Ava Bridge, a giant metal span, had partially collapsed into the Irrawaddy River. In Mandalay, monks in reddish robes cried out in shock as a multistory building at the New Masoeyein monastery fell near a toppled clock tower.
At a Buddhist monastery in Pindaya, about 70 miles from the epicentre, women wailed as the spire atop a century-old golden dome called a stupa toppled over, one of several that were damaged there. Rescue workers in other parts of the country dug through piles of twisted rebar and jagged concrete where buildings had been destroyed. Among the hard-hit places was Naypyitaw, the capital of the military government, about 150 miles from Mandalay.
The disaster compounded the monumental challenges facing Myanmar’s military rulers, who overthrew an elected government in 2021 and have restricted the country’s contact with the outside world. The junta has been steadily weakened since then, losing ground to rebels amid a bloody civil war that has left nearly 20 million of the country’s roughly 54 million people without enough food or shelter even before the quake, according to UN officials.
During past disasters, such as Cyclone Mocha in 2023 and Cyclone Nargis in 2008, Myanmar’s military rulers restricted the flow of international aid to hard-hit areas that were dominated by their foes.
But this time, the junta’s leaders immediately appealed for international help and declared a state of emergency in six regions of the country, news agencies reported, including Mandalay and Naypyitaw.
“We need and want the international community to provide humanitarian aid,” said a military spokesperson, Gen Zaw Min Tun. “We will cooperate with them to ensure the best care for the victims.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the organisation was mobilising to help people in need. The United Nations said it had allocated an initial US$5 million (S$6.7 million) from its emergency fund to help lifesaving operations in Myanmar.
President Donald Trump said the United States would also provide assistance to Myanmar. “It’s a real bad one, and we will be helping,” he said in the Oval Office. “We’ve already spoken with the country.”
Aid organisations said it was difficult to assess the full scope of the damage in many parts of Myanmar because electricity and communication lines were down. In addition, the junta has repeatedly shut off the internet and cut off access to social media, isolating the country.
The crackdown on internet access, intended to stifle dissent, could make it difficult to coordinate the delivery of aid.
Even before the quake, Myanmar’s health care system had been pushed to its limits. The junta has cracked down on doctors and nurses, who have been at the forefront of a civil disobedience movement opposed to the regime. Myanmar is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a health worker, according to the New York-based Physicians for Human Rights.
Backed by military and financial support from China, India, Russia and Thailand, the junta controls about 20 per cent of Myanmar, mainly urban areas. Its leader, Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, has been accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
The military has persecuted ethnic minorities, and this month arrested the leader of an armed group that has sought to protect Rohingya Muslims from a scorched-earth campaign of arson, mass rape and killing that the United States has called genocide.
In Mandalay, as the night deepened, terrified residents dragged mattresses and mosquito nets onto the streets to sleep. Others planned to spend the night in their cars. Many were too scared to return to their homes.
Myanmar is in one of the world’s most seismically active regions, where the Eurasian and Indian plates of the Earth’s crust grind against each other. In 2011, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake in eastern Myanmar killed more than 70 people and shattered hundreds of buildings.
* Reporting was contributed by Muktita Suhartono, Pablo Robles, Agnes Chang, Jenny Gross, Lara Jakes, Adam Satariano, Paul Mozur, Keith Bradsher and Vivian Wang.
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