Fifty children and two teachers were killed when a kindergarten collapsed.
Sirens today sounded in Myanmar to keep a minute’s silence for the dead of the recent strong earthquake in the country, who, according to a new report by the country’s junta, amounted to 2,719.
According to AFP reporters, the sirens sounded at 12:51:02 (08:21 Cyprus) just as the 7.7 -magnitude earthquake took place on Friday, the focus of which was near Mandalei, the country’s second largest city.
The death toll from the powerful earthquake reached 2,719, the head of the military junta of Myanmar Min Aung Hlating said today, noting that they are expected to exceed 3,000.
In a speech on state television, Hlating clarified that the number of injured was 4,521 and those missing at 441.
In compliance with a minute’s silence, Myanmar’s national television network interrupted its programs to transmit footage of flags that were mocking in different parts of the country, while mourning music was heard. The period of national mourning in the country will last until April 6, Junta announced Monday.
In the face of what was left of an apartment complex in Mandalei, in one of the parts of the city that were greatly affected by the powerful earthquake, rescuers stood in a row with their hands behind the back honoring the memory of the dead.
Four days after the most powerful earthquake that the country has ever encountered for decades, many people in Myanmar are still sleeping in the countryside, and constant aftershocks have been affecting their fears of new disasters.
Experts are concerned that the dead are thousands of more, as Shangling’s rift, from which the earthquake came, crosses areas among the country’s most populous, including the capital Naipidao, and Mandalei.
The Civil War, which has kneeling the key infrastructure and fragmenting the country, in which dozens of armed organizations, national minorities and political opponents of the junta, is further complicating the collection of information.
Over 1,000 rescuers from other countries have gone to Myanmar as part of international mobilization to assist local services that lack equipment against the crisis of this size. Rescue operations allowed about 650 people alive from the debris, according to a junta media.
The French Foreign Ministry announced yesterday the deaths of two citizens of the country, and according to China’s news agency Xinhua, three Chinese citizens also died.
About 500 faithful Muslims found death in mosques in the midst of Friday’s prayer, also wrote the Global New Light of Myanmar, which is in the junta.
Mandalei, near the focus of the earthquake, a city of over 1.7 million residents, suffered the biggest disasters, with many houses being debris.
Fifty children and two teachers were killed when their kindergarten in the city collapsed, the UN Humanitarian Coordination Office (OCHA) announced.
Hundreds of residents also spent the fourth night in the countryside, with some camping at a distance of buildings for fear that the aftershocks on Friday will cause new damage.
“I don’t feel safe,” said a 71 -year -old watchmaker, Thid. “There are many difficulties, such as access to water, electricity, or toilets. (…) No one knows how long it will last.”
In pagoda affected by a partially collapse of a building where there were dozens of exams, an Indian rescuer talked about the “very intense” stench that emerges from the bodies in disintegration into the ruins, and today he was still hot.
A firefighting official estimated that more than four days after the earthquake “there can be no survivors anymore”.
Relief organizations have noted that in the worst affected areas of Myanmar there is an urgent need for accommodation, food and water after the earthquake, but they have expressed fears that the civil war could prevent the help of reaching those who need it.
“In the most affected areas (…) communities are struggling to meet their basic needs, such as access to clean water and sanitary facilities, while emergencies are working tirelessly to detect survivors and provide lifesaving help,” according to Ocha.
The International Committee of the Red Cross noted that there is a need for accommodation, food, water and medical assistance in areas such as Mandalei, close to the focus of the earthquake.
Amnesty International also noted that the junta should allow help to reach the country that is not under its control, while rebel organizations said the military had made air raids after the earthquake.
“Myanmar’s army has long followed the practice of denying assistance to areas where they are resisting organizations,” Amnesty’s researcher said in Myanmar Joe Freeman.
“He must immediately allow unhindered access to all humanitarian organizations and remove administrative obstacles that delay the assessment of needs,” he said.
Nearly 1,000 kilometers away from the focus of the devastating earthquake, in the capital of Thailand Bangkok, rescue workshops continue to look for survivors in the ruins of a thirty -storey building that collapsed like a tower from playing cards. About 20 people died in the earthquake in Bangkok, according to today’s authorities’ report, while dozens of others are still missing.
Source: RES-EIA