A powerful earthquake that hit Myanmar on Friday has killed more than 150 people and wounded hundreds more, 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.
Where did the earthquake hit?
The earthquake of magnitude 7.7 reached northwest of the Myanmar saga on Friday at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (six miles).
He was followed minutes later by a powerful replica of 6.7 magnitude and a dozen smaller tremors.
The earthquake was felt throughout the region, with tremors reported from India to west and China to the east, as well as Cambodia and Laos.
The earthquake hit the saga failure that runs from the coast to the northern border of Myanmar, according to the scientists of the Judith Hubbard earthquake and Kyle Bradley.
What was the damage?
State MRTV said at least 144 people had been killed in Myanmar and 732 wounds.
In Thailand, 10 people died in Bangkok, mostly in the collapse of a scratching under construction.
The powerful earthquake has killed 140 people and counting, while destroying infrastructure, houses and transport networks. Fountain: Kick one / Noisakra de Tera
But up to 100 more construction workers believed themselves trapped in the building’s debris, near the extensive Chatuchak market.
Rescue operations continued throughout the night, although it showed complicated to choose unstable debris.
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.
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.
What have the officials said?
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.
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.
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.
