The UN is scrambling aid to Southeast Asia after a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake killed more than 140 people in Myanmar.
Naypyidaw’s infrastructure was severely damaged by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, making Myanmar’s future uncertain.
The official death toll has jumped to 694, with 1670 people injured, the country’s ruling junta said. Thousands are believed dead.
The earthquake exacerbates Myanmar’s existing crises, including civil war and severe food shortages, affecting millions.
It was supposed to be a symbol of power, progress and modernity, the face of a new Myanmar, built at a cost of billions of dollars and immune to foreign invaders and natural disasters.
Now the brilliant white streets and eight-lane roads of the new capital Naypyidaw are veined with gaping splits and cracks, its prized airport in ruins, after a massive earthquake struck the country on Friday and made Myanmar’s future more uncertain than ever, its seat of power ever more fragile.
The extent of the disaster – beginning at the epicentre in Mandalay and stretching hundreds of miles to neighbouring Thailand – remains unclear.
But it is believed that thousands of people have lost their lives.
As the 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country in the early afternoon, residents fled the dust and debris falling around them.
The disaster comes at a critical time for Myanmar, already torn apart by a brutal civil war.
Four years on from the military coup, a third of the population is reliant on humanitarian aid, the economy in ruins, and a severe food crisis under way.
On Friday night, Myanmar’s junta estimated that 144 people died and 732 were injured, but the group is known for under-reporting casualties.
A situation report from the United States Geological Survey predicted that there is a 34% chance that there were between 10,000 and 100,000 fatalities.
The ground at Mandalay General Hospital, close to the epicentre, was streaked with blood on Friday.
Around it lay dozens of injured people, some resting on wooden pallets, the others on sheets of cardboard.
“When my mother arrived at the Mandalay General Hospital, she was still alive,” Thiri San, 39, told The Telegraph.
Collapsed buildings in Mandalay Region, central Myanmar, reveal the devastating impact of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake. Photo / Unicef
“But there weren’t enough doctors to treat her and she lost too much blood from her head injury and passed away.”
The situation is so dire that the ruling junta has made a rare plea for humanitarian aid. As those organisations assess the damage, they are bracing for the worst.
“The earthquake could not have come at a worse time,” said Joe Freeman, a Myanmar researcher at Amnesty International.
“Central Myanmar, which is believed to be the epicentre of the earthquake, has been ravaged by military air strikes and clashes between resistance groups and the military,” he added.
More than 3.5 million people have been displaced by the conflict, according to the UN, a figure that is now likely to balloon.
Fierce fighting is ongoing around Mandalay and the rebel-held Sagaing, where some of the worst destruction caused by the earthquake unfolded.
Myanmar has a longstanding practice of denying aid to areas where groups who resist the regime are most active.
The devastation appears worse in Mandalay: houses collapsed on almost every street, while the walls of the moat around the city’s palace have crumbled.
Ambulances could be heard rushing through the city well into the night on Friday.
Collapsed buildings in Mandalay Region, central Myanmar, reveal the devastating impact of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake. Photo / UNICEF
The city’s main hospitals were overflowing with patients, beds spilling into parking lots, while the demand for blood was outpacing supply.
“At least 200 patients have arrived at the hospital’s emergency department,” said Dr Yan Naing, speaking from Mandalay General Hospital.
“There aren’t enough doctors and space. Patients are scattered inside the hospital… Across Myanmar, I believe the death toll will be in the hundreds.”
Unveiled in 2005, Naypyidaw was crowned the new capital. Unlike Yangon, its predecessor, it was grand, pristine and sparsely populated. Critics decried it as a vanity project by the ruling junta and, being further inland than Yangon, formerly called Rangoon, a reflection of its paranoia to protect itself against an amphibious US invasion, a natural disaster from the sea, and a popular uprising.
“By withdrawing from the major city, Rangoon, [former Burmese army general] Than Shwe and the leadership ... sheltered themselves from any popular uprising,” said activists Benedict Rogers and Jeremy Woodrum in their book Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant.
Prior to the disaster millions of people across the country were already living in fear and insecurity, with little access to medical care.
Collapsed buildings in Mandalay Region, central Myanmar, reveal the devastating impact of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake. Photo / UNICEF
The suspension of US foreign development assistance by Donald Trump earlier this year has worsened the crisis.
Before the move, the US was one of the largest donors to Myanmar, spending roughly US$200 million a year.
Abrupt funding cuts forced humanitarian organisations to scale back operations and have had a “crushing impact” on its people, according to experts.
“This is a catastrophe that is unfolding – it is unnecessary and it is cruel,” said Thomas Andrews, the US special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, earlier this month.
Just days before the earthquake, the UN announced it would cut aid to more than one million people in the country from next month, citing global funding shortfalls.
“At the same time, the impacts of US aid cuts on humanitarian services in the country are just starting to bite,” said Mr Freeman.
The tremors on Friday stretched as far as Thailand, where a state of emergency was declared and a 30-storey skyscraper tumbled to the ground.
At least three people were killed and 68 injured. It remains unclear how many were trapped under the rubble – initial estimates of 43 had risen to 81 by Friday evening.
“I heard the sound of the building falling – it was like a jet plane,” said Iana, 40, in Bangkok on holiday from Russia. “The building was shaking, shaking, shaking.”
People could be seen racing for cover as a cloud of debris surged toward them, swallowing the scene in thick darkness as it closed in.
Thai rescue workers arrive on scene at a construction building collapse in the Chatuchak area. Photo / Getty Images
The building belonged to the national audit office and had been under construction for three years at a cost of more than two billion Thai baht (roughly $101m).
Later, there will surely be questions about how this destruction was able to happen.
When The Telegraph visited on Friday afternoon, the site resembled the aftermath of a bomb blast.
The streets were covered in a thick layer of white dust, and a sombre atmosphere was pierced by sirens as the army, police and medics co-ordinated a rescue attempt against the odds.
Sompon, 50, was among the workers who narrowly escaped being buried when the earthquake hit.
“It’s indescribable. I’m speechless,” he said, still in a white hard hat and covered in soot, sheltering from the blistering 36C heat in shade near the site.
“Because all the dust [was] coming everywhere, we could see only dust. I ran out as fast as I could, to be safe,” he told The Telegraph. “This is the scariest experience I’ve ever had.”
Myanmar Fire Services Department continues emergency search and rescue operations. Photo / Getty Images
Those trapped in the debris could be heard screaming in the distance.
“I heard people calling for help, saying help me,” Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bangkok’s Bang Sue district, told AFP.
“I fear many lives have been lost. We have never experienced an earthquake with such a devastating impact before.”
There were surreal scenes elsewhere across the city as water gushed from rooftop swimming pools swaying from the shock.
Locals, too fearful to return to their buildings in case they too collapsed, gathered outside with their pets, unsure where to go.
“It was scary..... It’s my first time (in an earthquake), I was really nervous and I wasn’t sure what to do,” said Boom, 23, as she sat on the pavement of a busy main road, which was rammed with traffic after authorities shut the Skytrain for fear of structural damage.
Boom was on the 10th floor of a 23-floor apartment block when the quake struck.
“Then it started shaking more, there was a crack in the wall, so I grabbed my cat and sat under the table. Afterwards, I just went down the emergency ladder.”
“I’m waiting until someone like the Government tells me it’s safe,” she added, cradling her cat in her arms.
Nearby, people were also hugging children and dogs as the city processed the day’s events.
Among them were the city’s many Myanmar refugees and migrants, frantically trying to reach family and friends for news from across the border.
Back in Mandalay, San held her bleeding head.
Despite the death of her mother, she said she was still waiting to receive treatment for her own injuries and was “in pain inside out”.
The trauma she had suffered was apparent in her wavering voice.
“I saw bricks falling on my mother’s head. I tried to run to her, but I couldn’t reach her in time,” San said. “My 89-year-old father said this is the worst earthquake in his life.”
