Desperate search for survivors in Myanmar as death toll surges past 1,600

We’ve wrapped up our live coverage of the Myanmar earthquake for the day. Read more on the rescue effort here, or scroll through the updates below.

Wrecked roads and rubble are impeding relief efforts in Myanmar, according to the United Nations, as the race to find survivors continues after the deadliest quake in the Southeast Asian nation in years.

Severe shortages of medical supplies – including trauma kits, blood bags, anesthetics and assistive devices in a country isolated from the rest of the world by the military junta – have also complicated relief efforts, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Saturday.

Health workers on the ground, including in the cities of Mandalay, Magway, Nay Pyi Taw and Sagaing in central and northwestern Myanmar, are struggling to field streams of injured people.

In the south, the townships of Nyaungshwe, Kalaw and Pinlaung are among the hardest-hit by the earthquake, OCHA said in a statement.

“Thousands of people are spending the nights on the streets or (in) open spaces due to the damage and destruction to homes or fearing further quakes,” the agency said.

“As the full scale of the disaster unfolds, urgent humanitarian assistance is needed to support those affected,” it added.

Disruptions to telecommunications and internet services are making it harder still to distribute aid.

As of Friday, more than 1,200 houses, three school buildings, one hotel and several religious structures have been damaged or destroyed, OCHA said, also noting damage to hospitals, major bridges, universities, and historical and public buildings.

Myanmar, one of Asia’s poorest nations, has largely been shut off from the world by its military government during four years of civil war.

Following yesterday’s deadly earthquake, Min Aung Hlaing, leader of the military government, declared a state of emergency – and made a rare plea for help in an “open invitation to any organizations and nations willing to come and help the people in need within our country.”

China: Affirming its “deep and long-standing friendship with Myanmar” following the quake, China said a 37-member rescue and medical team was the first international rescue group to arrive in the country on Saturday morning. The team is equipped with 112 sets of full-featured life detectors, earthquake early warning systems, portable satellites, drones, and other emergency relief materials, CCTV added.

India: A 118 personnel medical team is being sent from India today and will land in capital Naypydaw, moving to Mandalay, the city closest to the quake’s epicentre. A search and rescue team was also deployed this morning, along with two ships carrying aid, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs. Further ships and flights carrying aid to Myanmar are said to follow.

Russia: Putin sent his “deepest condolences” to the country’s military ruler, according to Tass, Russia’s state-run news agency. Russia has committed to sending planeloads of relief supplies and personnel.

US: President Donald Trump described the quake as “terrible” and vowed that the US would assist Myanmar. “It’s a real bad one, and we will be helping. We’ve already spoken with the country,” he told reporters.

Others sending aid include the European Union, which has pledged 2.5 million euros ($2.7 million) in initial emergency aid, as well as South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore.

A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar on Friday causing mass destruction. More than 1,600 people are dead and authorities expect that number to rise.

The earthquake is the most powerful to strike Myanmar in over a century, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Aid groups are on the ground to help those affected. You can assist them by clicking HERE.

More than 1,600 people are confirmed dead from the devastating quake in Myanmar, the ruling military authorities said on state television.

The toll has leapt from the previous figure of 1,002.

The number of injured increased to 3,408, while those missing now stands at 139.

A mother of two was rescued from beneath the wreckage of a collapsed apartment building in Mandalay, according to AFP.

Phyu Lay Khaing was brought out of the Sky Villa Condominium some 30 hours after the earthquake hit Myanmar. She was carried by stretcher to be embraced by her husband and taken to the hospital.

“In the beginning, I didn’t think she would be alive,” her husband told AFP while anxiously waiting for her to emerge. “I am very happy that I heard good news.” The couple have two sons: William, 8 and Ethan, 5.

A Red Cross official told AFP that more than 90 people could be trapped under the remains of the apartment block.

According to data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the March 2025 quake is the most powerful to strike Myanmar in over a century.

The last earthquake of a similar magnitude happened in 1912 in Taunggyi, a city in east-central Myanmar.

Yesterday’s quake has killed at least 1,000 people in Myanmar with the USGS estimating that the death toll could top 10,000.

Rescue workers attempt to free people trapped under the rubble of the destroyed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Saturday.

More than 1,000 people are confirmed dead after a large earthquake struck Myanmar, with rescue efforts underway to save the many who remain trapped under rubble.

Foreign aid has started to arrive in the politically-isolated country, which is ill-equipped to handle natural disasters and has faced civil war since 2021, and harrowing testimonies from survivors are starting to emerge.

Here’s what you need to know:

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows a collapsed air traffic control tower at the Naypyidaw International Airport on Saturday, after an earthquake struck in Naypyidaw, Myanmar.

The air traffic control tower at Myanmar’s Naypyitaw International Airport collapsed in yesterday’s earthquake, according to satellite photos analysed by the Associated Press.

Caritas Australia, an NGO with partners in Myanmar, also reported that the control tower collapsed and killed all staff on duty.

A Burmese journalist in exile described hearing the news of the earthquake which hit his hometown in the Mandalay region.

Han Sai, who spoke to CNN using a pseudonym, lost his younger brother in the quake. “I received a call from a villager showing me a monastery turned (into) rubble, further saying my brother was inside it,” he said.

“Yesterday was fast day in Buddhist tradition. Religious buildings in my village are at least 70-year-old. When the earthquake happened, those buildings could not stand it.”

It took three hours for men from the village to recover his brother’s body, which he said was in separate pieces and buried immediately.

According to Han Sai, there is no official help from the state administration and people are relying on one another for help. “They are not capable of helping such a widespread destruction,” he said of the authorities.

At least 60 people in Han Sai’s village have been killed, according to a rescue team member there.

The journalist, who cannot return to his country for fear of being conscripted or imprisoned, said rebel groups and the junta should “focus on saving people instead of fighting.”

Emotive footage shows a man clutching the lifeless hand of his mother whose body remains trapped under rubble in Myanmar, as he says his last goodbyes to her.

The man, whose mother was killed in Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake, sobs as he tells her; “Mother, I’m your son, reciting Dhama in your name,” a core practice of Buddhism.

He continues, “Please rest assured about me. I won’t go to any place where you don’t want me. I won’t do anything stupid either. I will be good, please rest assured about me.”

The man describes himself on social media as a resident of Naypyidaw – Myanmar’s military-built capital – but it is unclear where the footage was filmed.

At least 1,000 people are dead after the quake struck near Mandalay in Myanmar and rocked neighboring Thailand. The quake was the largest to hit Myanmar in more than a century.

The US Geological Survey estimated that the death toll could top 10,000.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra arrives at the construction site where a building collapsed in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra the country “has returned to normalcy” after a deadly quake rattled the capital.

Shinawatra said only one building collapsed in Bangkok, adding that the building was under construction and that no other buildings in the capital suffered a similar impact.

“We have tasked the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning to investigate as to what happened [to the collapsed building] and what would be the future standards,” said the PM.

At least 10 people in Thailand have been killed as a result of the quake. In neighboring Myanmar, the death toll currently stands at more than 1,000 with aid groups still struggling to reach those who need help.

Rescue workers look for survivors in the rubble of a damaged building in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Friday.

Survivors of the large 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar on Friday have been scrambling through dirt with their bare hands to try and rescue those still trapped under rubble, hampered by shortages of heavy machinery.

Myanmar is ill-equipped to deal with the fallout of such natural disasters – the country has been mired in a bloody civil war since 2021 which has decimated infrastructure and internally displaced millions of citizens.

He described how some of his extended family members remain trapped under a collapsed building, despite his efforts to dig them out with his hands.

Meanwhile in Amarapura, a township in Mandalay city, a rescue worker said he was trying to reach 140 monks still under the rubble of a building. “We cannot help because we do not have enough manpower and machines to remove the debris,” he told the news agency, adding defiantly “we will not stop working.”

Several countries deployed rescue teams to Myanmar to boost relief operations with many people still missing after the country’s military government made a rare plea for help.

A Chinese team was the first international rescue group to reach Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon on Saturday morning, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

The Thai king, Maha Vajiralongkorn, along with the country’s queen and prince, expressed their “deep sorrow and condolences” to the families of those killed in the quake.

The royal family announced that they have instructed for all earthquake victims from across the country to be admitted as patients under their “royal patronage” in a statement Saturday.

At least 10 people have died in Bangkok with authorities racing to free scores more believed to be trapped under the rubble of an under-construction high-rise.

Burmese milk tea shopkeeper Hnin Hnin, whose relatives are safe in Yangon, in New Taipei City, Taiwan, on Saturday.

In Taiwan’s “Little Myanmar” — home to thousands from the Sino-Burmese diaspora — many spent a sleepless night after a powerful earthquake struck Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city. With Myanmar’s unstable internet and reports of power outages in the hard-hit city of Mandalay, many waited anxiously for hours to hear from their relatives.

Khin Mg Oo, who has a niece in Mandalay, said she was only able to confirm her family’s safety late Friday night. “It was a relief,” he said.

“She told me their two-story home shook violently, and they rushed outside immediately.”

Due to poor connectivity — worsened by internet restrictions imposed after the military coup in 2021 — his niece was only able to send a brief video showing damage to their house.Most community members who spoke with CNN said their families were largely unaffected, as many have ties to Yangon, which is further from the epicenter.

Taiwan is home to an estimated 50,000 Sino-Burmese, many of whom trace their roots back to the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, when defeated Republic of China soldiers fled to Burma before later relocating to Taiwan.

The community is concentrated in New Taipei City, which neighbors the island’s capital, Taipei.

At a Burmese milk tea shop, shopkeeper Hnin Hnin – whose relatives are safe in Yangon – said many in the community felt a sense of helplessness.

While most relatives were safe, Hnin Hnin said she was aware of a Burmese student in Taiwan who lost her mother in northern Mandalay.

On Saturday, the Burmese community in Taiwan, led by a repatriate association, launched a fundraising campaign to support victims back home.

Zu Guolin, a 40-year-old Chinese businessman in the jade trade, was in the central Myanmar countryside on a trip with three friends Friday, when they felt the earthquake strike soon after midday.

“When the quake hit, we were on U Bein Bridge in Mandalay. It’s a wooden bridge, and we were all lying flat on it,” he told CNN.

“At first, the shaking was pretty mild, but then it got stronger. We were flat on our stomachs, and the bridge was swaying back and forth about 20 centimeters. It felt like we were sliding around.”

Right now, Zu – who has lived in Mandalay for three years – is in the New Mandalay Resort City, a well-off neighborhood, huddled together with dozens of other Chinese. He said internet connection is unstable.

“A lot of houses cracked from the quake, and we’re too scared to go inside. Last night, we had to sleep in our cars parked by the roadside,” he said.

“We’re all safe. None of my friends were hurt.”

“I really hope Mandalay bounces back soon. It’s such a big city with so many people living there.”

A rescue team gathers at the Changshui International Airport in Kunming, Yunnan province of China, on Saturday, before departing for Myanmar.

Several countries deployed rescue teams to Myanmar to boost relief operations amid a soaring death toll from Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake, with many people still missing.

Military leaders in the isolated country took the rare step of requesting international assistance to deal with the quake. During previous major natural disasters, they have often shunned global aid offers.

A Chinese team was the first international rescue group to reach Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon on Saturday morning, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Beijing will also provide 100 million yuan ($13 million) worth of humanitarian aid to Myanmar, its foreign aid agency said Saturday, after China’s leader Xi Jinping spoke on the phone to Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.

China is the military junta’s most important ally, as well as being one of its biggest trading partners, investing billions of dollars in mining, oil and natural gas developments in the resource-rich country.

Russia was quick to follow China in deploying its own team of specialists, including dog teams, anesthesiologists and psychologists, the country’s emergencies ministry said.

Neighboring India has also sent a rescue and medical team, along with urgent humanitarian aid, its External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on X Saturday.

Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia also pledged to send rescue teams.

Recovery operations are ongoing in both Bangkok, Thailand and Mandalay, Myanmar, a day after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit the region.

In Bangkok, rescue workers are searching the rubble of a collapsed high-rise building, where more than 100 people are believed to be trapped. As efforts continue, the loved ones of those feared to be under the rubble have taken to waiting at the edge of the excavation site.

In Myanmar, at least 1,000 people are dead. One of Asia’s poorest nations and reeling from a 2021 military coup, weak infrastructure makes it ill-equipped to deal with major natural disasters. Multiple countries have deployed rescue teams to Myanmar to boost relief operations.

A man cries while waiting for updates on the search for survivors at an under-construction high-rise building in Bangkok on Saturday, March 29, a day after an earthquake collapsed the building.

The site of a building collapse in Bangkok on Saturday.

Construction equipment is used to dig through the rubble, as people look for survivors in a damaged building in Mandalay on Saturday.

Motorists wait in line at a petrol station in Mandalay on Saturday.

A damaged pagoda in Mandalay on Saturday.

Rescuers look for survivorss in the rubble of a damaged building in Mandalay on Saturday.

People wait for updates on rescue operations at the site of a collapsed building in Bangkok on Saturday.

Rescue dogs walk at the site of a building collapse in Bangkok on Saturday.

See more photos of the devastating earthquake.

Since Friday’s huge quake hit central Myanmar, communication with Mandalay has been difficult, making it hard to assess the true extent of the damage for those close to the disaster zone.

The city of around 1.5 million people is the nearest major population center to the epicenter. It is the former royal capital, filled with historical architecture and cultural treasures.

CNN managed to reach one woman living there, who recalled the terrifying moment a family member was buried by rubble. She asked not to be named.

“It hit very strong and very fast,” she said of the earthquake. She recalled she was boiling water to make milk for her baby when the 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck not far from her home to the east of the city.

Part of the wall of the house collapsed onto the woman’s grandmother who was sitting nearby, burying her legs in rubble and debris, she said.

The two of them carried her grandmother to a clinic.

“There are cracks in our ceiling and wall,” she said. “Nearly all” of the buildings in the woman’s neighborhood showed signs of some damage, she said.

More than 1,000 people have been confirmed killed across Myanmar, state broadcaster MRTV said earlier on Saturday. Experts warn that toll is likely to increase.

Den San, a Cambodian migrant worker who has lived in Thailand for 18 years, waits for an update on her brother and his wife, who were working at the building when it collapsed.

Anxious loved ones waited outside a twisted mass of metal and concrete in the heart of Thailand’s capital on Saturday as rescuers searched for dozens of missing workers and the city confronted the aftermath of a rare and powerful earthquake that set skyscrapers swaying and rattled millions of residents.

Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake struck hundreds of miles away in impoverished Myanmar, but was strong enough to send shock waves through the forest of high-rise condominiums, shopping malls and offices of central Bangkok, sending water spilling from infinity pools and buckling carriages on the city’s rail network.

The ground zero of the devastation in the Thai capital is an under-construction 30-story skyscraper next to the sprawling Chatuchak weekend market popular with the millions of foreign tourists that visit the city each year.

Early Saturday the loved ones of those feared buried under the mountain of broken pillars, rubble and steel sat on plastic chairs at the edge of the excavation site, watching diggers claw through the debris.

Junpen Kaewnoi’s mother and sister were working as painters on the site and are now among the missing, she told CNN.

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