Myanmar earthquake toll crosses 2,000

The toll in the earthquake that struck central Myanmar on Friday morning has risen to 2,056, AFP quoted the country’s military-led government as stating on Monday.

The government said more than 3,900 persons were injured and 270 are still missing. It also declared a week of national mourning until April 6 “in sympathy for the loss of life and damages” due to the disaster.

The earthquake of magnitude 7.5 struck central Myanmar’s Mandalay city on Friday at 11.50 am local time. Mandalay is the country’s second-largest city by population.

A second quake, an aftershock measuring 7.0, struck at 12.02 pm, according to India’s National Center for Seismology. The United States Geological Survey said that the magnitude of the first quake was 7.7 and the second was 6.6.

Both quakes were shallow with a depth of 10 km. Shallow earthquakes tend to be more destructive.

The quake also rattled neighbouring Thailand. At least 19 persons were killed in the capital Bangkok, about 1,000 kms away from Mandalay, and at least 75 people were trapped under the debris of an under-construction building that collapsed due to the earthquakes.

In Myanmar, the true scale of the disaster was yet to emerge and the toll was expected to rise significantly as communication lines were still down in much of the country.

Declaring the earthquake a top-level emergency, the...

Read more