Aftershocks rattle Mandalay amid search for survivors

MANDALAY, Myanmar (AFP) — Residents scoured collapsed buildings Sunday searching for survivors as aftershocks rattled the devastated city of Mandalay, two days after a massive earthquake killed at least 1,700 people in Myanmar and at least 17 in neighboring Thailand.

The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.

The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with mass destruction seen in the city of more than 1.7 million people.

Tea shop owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a collapsed restaurant on a main road in his neighborhood early on Sunday, tossing bricks aside one by one.

“About seven people died here” when the quake struck, he told Agence France-Presse. “I’m looking for more bodies but I know there cannot be any survivors.”

“We don’t know how many bodies there could be but we are looking.”

About an hour later, a small aftershock struck, sending people scurrying out of a hotel for safety, following a similar tremor felt late Saturday evening.

And around 2 p.m., another aftershock — of 5.1-magnitude according to the United States Geological Survey — sent people into the streets in alarm once again, temporarily halting rescue work.

The night before, rescuers had pulled a woman out alive from the wreckage of a collapsed apartment building, with applause ringing out as she was carried by stretcher to an ambulance.

Myanmar’s ruling junta said in a statement Sunday afternoon that about 1,700 people were confirmed dead so far, about 3,400 injured and around 300 more missing.

But the true scale of the disaster remains unclear in the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.

At a destroyed Buddhist examination hall in Mandalay, Myanmar and Chinese responders worked to find buried victims on Sunday.

A coordinator on the site said more than 180 monks were sitting an exam inside when the quake struck and collapsed a whole section of the building.

So far, 21 people have been rescued while 13 bodies have been recovered, but at least two more people were still believed alive in the rubble, rescuers said.