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A powerful earthquake that hit Myanmar on Friday has killed more than 140 people and wounded hundreds more, the authorities said, demolishing buildings and demolition infrastructure in a wide area, including a skyscraper under construction in neighboring Thailand.
Much of the devastation was in Mandalay, the second largest city in the country, which is near the epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake. The earthquake, which occurred around lunch time, was followed by a powerful replica and several more moderate.
A rescue worker from Amarapura, an ancient city and now a municipality of Mandalay, said that the bodies of 30 people had been recovered from collapsed several floors block blocks.
“I had never experienced something like this before: our city looks like a collapsed city,” he said, estimating that approximately one fifth of the buildings had been destroyed.
“We receive calls to help people from within, but we cannot help because we don’t have enough labor and machines to eliminate debris, but we will not stop working.”
General Min Cong Hlaing, leader of the Myanmar Military Board, said there would be more deaths and victims and invited “any country” to provide help and donations.
Speaking at the White House later on Friday, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, said he had spoken with officials in Myanmar and that his administration would provide some form of assistance. “We will be helping,” he told reporters.
In the Thai Bangkok capital, an official said that at least nine people had been killed. Rescuers were looking for the debris of the tower block that collapsed.
Mandalay, with a population of approximately 1.5 million, is the old real capital of Myanmar and the center of its Buddhist heart. The rescue workers tried to reach dozens of monks trapped under the rubble in the Phaya Taung monastery, said the emergency worker in Amarapura. The buildings, bridges and roads were destroyed, residents and local media said.
State MRTV said at least 144 people had been killed in Myanmar and 732 wounds.
The Board is locked in a fight to leave insurgents who fight against their government, a situation that will probably complicate the rescue and help operation.
“We all ran out of the house when it all started to tremble,” said a Mandalay resident to Reuters. “I witnessed a collapse of the five -story building in front of my eyes. Everyone in my city is on the road and nobody dares to return inside.”
A rescue worker from the beneficial organization Moe Saydanar told Reuters that he had recovered at least 60 bodies of monasteries and buildings in Pyinmana, near the capital Naypyidaw, and more people were trapped.
In the specially designed capital, a 1,000 -bed hospital suffered damage and the roads were left with large fissures, state media reported.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said that the United Nations were mobilizing in Southeast Asia to help those in need.
Zin Mar Link, the diplomatic spokesman of the Government of the National Opposition Unit, said that the combatants of the anti-junction militias known as the people’s defense forces would provide humanitarian aid.
An analysis of the United States government based on the strength and depth of the earthquake estimated that there could be thousands of severe economic deaths and losses, with the worst success of the Sagaing and Meiktila regions.
The state media said the earthquake caused the collapse of the buildings in five cities and towns, as well as a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay highway. The images showed the Ava bridge destroyed on the Irrawaddy River, its arches are inclined in the water.
A Mandalay resident said the destruction extended throughout the city, and a neighborhood, Sein bread, was on fire.
The roads were damaged, the telephone lines interrupted and there was no electricity, said the resident, who refused to be named.
At least three people died after a mosque in Taungoo partially collapsed, two witnesses said.
“We were saying prayers when they began the tremor … three died on the spot,” said one.
Local media reported that a hotel in Aung Ban, in the state of Shan, collapsed in debris, with the democratic voice of Burma informing that two people had died and 20 were caught.
Amnesty International said that the earthquake could not have arrived at a worse time for Myanmar, given the number of people already displaced within the country due to the current civil conflict, the existing need for help of help and cuts to the help of the United States by the Trump administration.
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