Myanmar hospitals overwhelmed as military govt says more than 2,000 killed in quake

A Myanmar Muslim organisation says more than 700 worshipers were killed when the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the country at Friday prayer time during the holy month of Ramadan.  Myanmar's military leadership has declared a week of national mourning, as it says more than 2,000 people have died in the country following Friday's powerful earthquake

Tun Kyi, a member of the steering committee of the Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network, said Monday that some 60 mosques were damaged or destroyed when the 7.7 magnitude quake hit near Mandalay, the country's second largest city.

It was not immediately clear whether those killed in the mosques were included in the official toll of more than 1,700 people killed in the earthquake so far.

Videos posted on The Irrawaddy online news site showed several mosques toppling during the quake, and people fleeing from the areas.

Tun Kyi said most of the mosques damaged were older buildings more vulnerable to earthquakes.

The death toll from the earthquake that hit Myanmar has risen to more than 2,000 as more bodies have been pulled from the rubble, the country's military-led government said on Monday.

Government spokesman Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun told state-run MRTV that another 3,400 have been injured and more than 300 were missing.He did not provide more specific figures.

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit at midday on Friday, causing widespread damage, including in the capital Naypitaw and the second largest city, Mandalay.

Myanmar's military leadership has declared a week of national mourning, as it says more than 2,000 people have died in the country following Friday's powerful earthquake

The UN has made an urgent appeal for $8m (£6.2m), as aid groups warn of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country, with hospitals damaged and overwhelmed - the BBC has been told the smell of dead bodies is permeating the streets

BBC Burmese's Htet Naing Zhaw has visited a preschool in Kyaukse, where school bags, books and learning materials lay scattered among the rubble

Myanmar's military leaders are still carrying out air strikes against an armed resistance they have been fighting for four years, reports BBC's Rebecca Henschke

Rescuers freed a woman from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar, officials said on Monday, a glimmer of hope three days after a massive earthquake that killed around 2,000 as searchers in Myanmar and Thailand raced against time to find more survivors.

The woman was pulled from the rubble after 60 hours trapped under the collapsed Great Wall Hotel in the city of Mandalay after a 5-hour operation by Chinese, Russian and local teams, according to a Chinese embassy Facebook post. It said she was in stable condition early on Monday.

Mandalay is near the epicentre of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on Friday that wreaked mass devastation in Myanmar and damage in neighbouring Thailand.

In Bangkok, Thailand's capital, emergency crews using cranes and dog sniffers on Monday continued a desperate search for 76 people believed buried under the rubble of an under-construction skyscraper that collapsed.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said rescuers are not giving up despite the conventional-wisdom window for finding people alive fast approaching.

"The search will continue even after 72 hours because in Turkey, people who have been trapped for a week have survived.

The search has not been cancelled," Chadchart said.

He said machine scans of the rubble indicated there may still be people alive underneath, and dog sniffers are being dispatched to try to pinpoint their locations.

"We've detected weak life signs and there are many spots," he said.

Thailand's official death toll was at 18 on Sunday, but could shoot up without more rescues at the collapsed building site.

In Myanmar, state media said at least 1,700 people have been confirmed dead. The Wall Street Journal, citing the ruling military junta, reported the death toll had reached 2,028 in Myanmar. Reuters could not immediately confirm the new death toll.

The United Nations said it was rushing relief supplies to estimated 23,000 quake-hit survivors in central Myanmar.

"Our teams in Mandalay are joining efforts to scale up the humanitarian response despite going through the trauma themselves," said Noriko Takagi, the U.N. refugee agency's representative in Myanmar. "Time is of the essence as Myanmar needs global solidarity and support through this immense devastation."

India, China and Thailand are among Myanmar's neighbours that have sent relief materials and teams, along with aid and personnel from Malaysia, Singapore and Russia.

The United States pledged $2 million in aid "through Myanmar-based humanitarian assistance organizations". It said in a statement that an emergency response team from USAID, which is undergoing massive cuts under the Trump administration, is deploying to Myanmar.

The quake devastation has piled more misery on Myanmar, already in chaos from a civil war that grew out of a nationwide uprising after a 2021 military coup ousted the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

One rebel group said Myanmar's ruling military was still conducting airstrikes on villages in the aftermath of the quake, and Singapore's foreign minister called for an immediate ceasefire to help relief efforts.

Critical infrastructure - including bridges, highways, airports and railways - across the country of 55 million lie damaged, slowing humanitarian efforts while the conflict that has battered the economy, displaced over 3.5 million people and debilitated the health system rages on.