In this image provided by The Myanmar Military True News Information Team, Myanmar's military leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, center, inspects damaged road caused by an earthquake Friday, March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP/PTI)
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The death toll from a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar has jumped to nearly 700, according to the government.
State-run television MRTV reported that 694 people have now been found dead and another 1,670 injured, according to a statement from the military-led government. The same figures were also reported by the independent news site The Irrawaddy.
The earthquake struck midday Friday with an epicentre not far from Mandalay, Myanmar's second biggest city, sending buildings in many areas toppling to the ground and causing other widespread damage.
A building is damaged after earthquake Friday, March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP/PTI)
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Myanmar is in the throes of a prolonged and bloody civil war, which is already responsible for a massive humanitarian crisis. It makes movement around the country both difficult and dangerous, complicating relief efforts.
The head of Myanmar's military government, Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, said in a rare television broadcast Friday that the death toll was expected to rise as he reported an initial 144 people found dead.
The earthquake also shook neighboring Thailand, killing six people and injuring 22 at three construction sites, including one where a partially built high-rise collapsed.
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In this image posted by @DrSJaishankar via X on March 29, 2025, humanitarian aid, sent by India for the people of earthquake-hit Myanmar, being unloaded from the C-130 J Super Hercules aircraft. (PTI)
India delivers relief materials
India on Saturday sent around 15 tonnes of relief materials in a military transport aircraft to earthquake-hit people of Myanmar.
A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand on Friday, destroying buildings, bridges and a monastery.
India sent the relief materials to Yangoon in a C130J military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force.
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A rescuer works at the site of a building that collapsed, following a strong earthquake, in Bangkok, Thailand, March 29, 2025. (Reuters)
The supplies included tents, sleeping bags, blankets, ready-to-eat meals, water purifiers, solar lamps, generator sets and essential medicines, officials said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday expressed concern over the devastating earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand and said India stands ready to offer all possible assistance to the two countries.
"Concerned by the situation in the wake of the Earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand. Praying for the safety and wellbeing of everyone," Modi said on X.
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Workers at the site of a building that collapsed react as they wait for an update on their colleagues and friends, following a strong earthquake, in Bangkok, Thailand, March 29, 2025. (Reuters)
"India stands ready to offer all possible assistance. In this regard, asked our authorities to be on standby. Also asked the MEA to remain in touch with the Governments of Myanmar and Thailand," he said.
In Taiwan's Little Myanmar, fear for quake affected relatives
Win Win has been glued to social media for the past day, trying to work out whether her family in Myanmar's Mandalay survived Friday's powerful earthquake, distracting herself at the Taiwan restaurant where she works by serving samosas and other snacks.
"We spoke last night but then nothing today. I can't get through. I'm so scared for them," Win Win, one of Taiwan's estimated 50,000 Sino-Burmese, told Reuters on Saturday at the eatery in Little Myanmar in New Taipei, neighbouring the capital, Taipei.
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Yee Yu Nai, a Chinese-Myanmar resident of Taiwan's Little Myanmar, speaks to a reporter about trying to contact family members in Mandalay, Myanmar affected by a powerful earthquake that hit the country on Friday, in New Taipei city, Taiwan March 29, 2025. (Reuters)
Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay, which lies close to the epicentre of the 7.7 magnitude quake, has a large ethnic Chinese population, many of whom have ties to Taiwan, whose government has offered to send rescue teams.
Taiwan's foreign ministry says it has yet to receive a response to that offer.
Yee Yu Nai, sitting at a snack store in Little Myanmar, scrolled through her phone looking for the latest news from Mandalay, where her sister lives.
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K-9 dogs walk at the site of a building that collapsed, following a strong earthquake, in Bangkok, Thailand, March 29, 2025. (Reuters)
"I know their house is OK as it was newly built, but the street is very badly damaged," she said.
Taiwan's Myanmar community traces its history back to the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when many of the defeated Republic of China soldiers fled into what was then called Burma before eventually being evacuated to Taiwan.
Others have come more recently, fleeing repression and anti-Chinese sentiment.
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A relative of a casualty who is trapped at the building that collapsed following a strong earthquake, is escorted, in Bangkok, Thailand, March 29, 2025. (Reuters)
Ethnic Chinese in Myanmar have historically faced discrimination, especially under the rule of General Ne Win, who seized power in 1962.
He barred ethnic Chinese and other foreigners from owning land, banned Chinese-language education and stoked anti-Chinese violence. Bloody anti-Chinese riots erupted in 1967.
Another resident of Taiwan's Little Myanmar, who asked to be identified by her family name of Huang to avoid repercussions for her relatives still in the country, said the precarious state of civil strife-hit Myanmar was her biggest concern.
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A bridge that connects two high-rise condominiums is seen damaged, following a strong earthquake, in Bangkok, Thailand, March 29, 2025. (Reuters)
"I just don't think anyone is coming to save them," she said of her relatives still in Mandalay.