Hopes were fading Monday of finding more survivors in the rubble of Mandalay, where some residents spent a third night sleeping in the open after a massive earthquake killed at least 1,700 people in Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.
Rescue efforts were less active in the central Myanmar city of more than 1.7 million people early Monday, but conditions are difficult — with temperatures expected to reach around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
The sticky heat has exhausted rescue workers and accelerated body decomposition, which could complicate identification.
A desperate scene unfolded at a collapsed apartment block in Myanmar’s second biggest city on Sunday evening, when rescuers thought they had saved the life of a pregnant woman trapped under the rubble for more than 55 hours.
They amputated her leg to free her, but after pulling her out she was pronounced dead.
“We tried everything to save her,” said one of the medical responders, but she had lost too much blood from the amputation.
Muslim worshipers, meanwhile, gathered near a destroyed mosque in the city on Monday morning for the first prayer of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that follows the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
Funerals for hundreds of victims are also expected to take place on Monday.
The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with some of the worst destruction seen in central Myanmar.
Aftershocks cause panic
Aftershocks continued to be felt in Mandalay over the weekend, spurring residents to flee into the streets in multiple instances of brief panic.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an emergency appeal Sunday for more than $100 million to help victims.
The world’s largest humanitarian network said needs were growing by the hour as rising temperatures and the approaching monsoon season increase the risk of “secondary crises”.
The challenges facing the Southeast Asian country of over 50 million people were immense even before the earthquake.
Myanmar has been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.
Reports have emerged of sporadic fighting even after the quake, with one rebel group telling AFP on Sunday that seven of its fighters were killed in an aerial attack soon after the tremors hit.
Before Friday’s quake, some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger.
Bangkok building collapse
In the Thai capital of Bangkok — about 1,000 kilometres away from Mandalay — rain fell on Monday morning at the site of a collapsed building that had been under construction at the time of Friday’s quake.
At least 18 people have been killed in Bangkok, city authorities said Sunday, with 33 injured and 78 still missing.
Most of the deaths were workers killed in the tower collapse, while most of the missing are believed to be trapped under the immense pile of debris where the skyscraper once stood.
Rescue workers raced over the weekend to find survivors, using large mechanical diggers to uncover rubble while distressed family members waited nearby.
Sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones have been deployed to seek signs of life in the collapsed building, which is close to the Chatuchak weekend market popular among tourists.
