Earthquake death tolls passes 2,000 in Myanmar
An activist group said several hundred Muslims died while praying at mosques and 200 Buddhist monks were crushed by a collapsing monastery.
The death toll in last week’s massive earthquake in Myanmar has passed 2,000, state media said.
It comes as rescuers and an activist group said several hundred Muslims died while praying at mosques during Ramadan and 200 Buddhist monks were crushed by a collapsing monastery.
The quake could exacerbate hunger and disease outbreaks in a country that was already one of the world’s most challenging places for humanitarian organisations to operate because of civil war, aid groups and the United Nations warned.
The 7.7 magnitude quake hit on Friday, with the epicentre near Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay.
It damaged the city’s airport, buckled roads and collapsed hundreds of buildings along a wide swathe down the country’s centre.
Relief efforts are further hampered by power outages, fuel shortages and spotty communications.
A lack of heavy machinery has slowed search and rescue operations, forcing many to search for survivors by hand in daily temperatures above 40C.
Rescue workers at Mandalay’s collapsed U Hla Thein monastery said they were still searching for about 150 of the dead monks.
Some 700 Muslim worshippers attending Friday prayers were killed when mosques collapsed, said Tun Kyi, a member of the steering committee of the Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network.
He said some 60 mosques were damaged or destroyed.
Videos posted on The Irrawaddy online news site showed several mosques toppling.
It was not clear whether those numbers were already included in the official toll.
Myanmar state MRTV reported that the leader of the military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, told Pakistan’s prime minister during a call that 2,065 people were killed, with more than 3,900 injured and about 270 missing.
