The toll of the Myanmar earthquake exceeds 1,600 died in the middle of the search for survivors

The financial statements of the official victims of the earthquake that shattered Myanmar exceeded 1,600 people, said the military leaders of the country on Saturday, while the desperate rescuers ran to find survivors and started struggling with a monumental disaster in a nation already collected by the civil war.

The powerful earthquake struck on Friday near Mandalay, the largest city in the country, and voluntary emergency operators combined the ruins of apartments, monasteries and mosques looking for anyone who has remained alive. The earthquake overturned the power lines and caused the row. The workers were missing equipment such as excavators and struggled while the repressive military authorities kept an eye on.

“There are at least a hundred people still trapped inside,” said Thaw Zin, a volunteer who was sitting in front of a destroyed condominium. “We are doing our best with what we have.”

The victims of the victims will be increased steeply, although the Myanmar military junta, which has overturned a government elected in 2021, tried to limit what information leave the country. The modeling of the United States Geological Survey suggested the number of deaths probably Surpasses 10,000.

The earthquake raised questions that the military sovereigns of Myanmar it can be able to remain in powerhaving already lost ground for the rebels in the midst of a Bloody civil war This left almost 20 million of about 54 million people in the country without enough food or refuge even before the earthquake, according to the United Nations officials.

Even after the disaster hit, Myanmar military jets dropped bombs on Friday evening in a village held by the rebels, Naung Lin, in the north state of Shan. “I just can’t believe they have made aerial attacks simultaneously with the earthquake,” said Lay Yal Oo, residing in Naung Lin.

The anger against the military was getting up in the wake of the disaster on Saturday. Mr. Thaw Zin, Mandalay’s volunteer, said that police soldiers and agents showed up on catastrophes sites but did nothing to help. “I’m here around with their guns,” he said. “We don’t need pistols, we need kind hands and hearts.”

But the junta also recognized the enormous extension of the catastrophe, which caused the collapse of a building 600 miles away from Bangkok and sent shock waves in the South -est Asia. The military government has declared the state of emergency in six regions of Myanmar, including areas controlled by the rebels in which millions of displaced people live with scarce internet.

The leader of the army, senior gen. Min aung Hlaing, examined the disaster sites on Friday and visited an improvised hospital in Naypyitaw, about 170 miles south of Mandalay, showed state media.

The junta, although isolated and under penalties by most of the world, has also made an extraordinary appeal to ask for help – a call to which some have started to answer despite the dizzying logistics obstacle In obtaining that help to the survivors.

Authority operators will have to cross collapsed roads and devastated regions, in a country Divided by a real civil war and the lords of the war in competitionWeapons traders, human traffickers and drug unions. There are risks that the military could interfere in the delivery of aid, the experts said and even the transfer of funds to Myanmar are complicated by the rules involving the penalties and the movement of money.

India, who shares a long border with Myanmar, sent 15 tons of aid and more than 100 medical specialists, said his foreign minister, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he spoke to the head of the junta, offering help to “a dear friend and close”.

China, which also borders Myanmar and which provided the arms from the council even if the tests grew on its military atrocities on Saturday, made dozens of dozens of research and rescue workers in the country. Beijing also planned to send almost $ 14 million to aid, including curtains, emergency room kit and drinking water, according to Chinese state media.

South Korea promised $ 2 million in aid, sent through international humanitarian agencies and the Malaysian government said he would have sent two teams of 50 people to support the rescue works.

But it has remained far from clear which type of response would have provided some of the richest nations in the world or how. Although President Trump said that the United States “will help”, has his administration He moved to everyone except eliminating The main US agency for the distribution of aid and the United States, Great Britain and other countries have imposed heavy penalties at the junta.

Even for the most friendly countries to the military sovereigns of Myanmar, there are great obstacles. The first helping deliveries sent by India and China went to the largest city in Myanmar, Yangon. They should have guided hundreds of miles north to reach Mandalay and other areas more affected by the earthquake.

In the disaster area, where the roads are damaged and destroyed and the power is largely disappeared, people have tried to stock up on fuel and food. Dozens of people from other Myanmar cities have also packaged their cars and supplies and headed to Mandalay, hoping to launch themselves.

The ambulances jammed the streets of Mandalay on Saturday, heading to the hospital two hours later that he had more space. Among the bricks, concrete and metal mounds in which the buildings remained two days earlier, some people started to lose hope.

“Yesterday we found some survivors, but today the chances are much lower,” said Ko Thien Win, who had rushed to the site of a condominium destroyed in Mandalay.

In hospitals, many others have been left in a sort of purgatory, to do with their wounds and fearing the fate of their loved ones. Tay Zar Lin had collected Mango when the ground started to tremble on Friday and fell, break his leg. He joined a hospital, where he could not see a doctor until Saturday morning.

He then discovered that his wife was still trapped inside the tailoring shop where he worked, he said. “Please haven’t been the last time I saw her yesterday morning,” he said.

The uncertainty extended far away of Myanmar, in the diaspora of people who have emigrated outside the country in recent decades. Richard Nee, one of the tens of thousands that now lives in Taiwan, said he and other former Mandalay residents were waiting for the word as friends and family. He knew that a friend’s wife was dead, apparently in a collapse of the building, but that sporadic communication had made it difficult to learn more.

An engineer, he said that many buildings in Myanmar, which is located in one of the most active seismic areas in the world, had been built to endure earthquakes. “Many buildings were strong enough for perhaps an earthquake of magnitude 6,” he said. “But anything above magnitude 6, like this time, was too much.”

And many survivors of the earthquake already know the destinies of their loved ones.

When the earthquake hit and his apartment in Mandalay began to lift, on Wai Lin, six months pregnant, she managed to escape the building with her husband and mother -in -law. But she said that her husband has returned to saving their 90 -year -old neighbor. Then the building collapsed, killing them.

“I can’t express in words the pain I hear,” he said crying as he spoke to the hospital. “My son will be born without father.”

David Pierson Reports contributed by Hong Kong, Mujib Mashal From New Delhi, Choe Sang-Hun AND Shawn Paik from Seoul, Chris Buckley from Taiwan, Jenny Gross from London and Hannah Beech from Boston.