Myanmar and Thailand earthquake live: Death toll soars to almost 700 as dozens trapped under Bangkok skyscraper – UK Times

The Indian foreign ministry said it has sent a first tranche of 15 tonnes of relief material to Myanmar.

The aid includes tents, blankets, sleeping bags, food packets, hygiene kits, generators, and essential medicines.

The Indian Air Force plane landed in Yangon on Saturday morning.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi also expressed concerns over the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand.

“Praying for the safety and wellbeing of everyone. India stands ready to offer all possible assistance. In this regard, asked our authorities to be on standby. Also asked the MEA to remain in touch with the governments of Myanmar and Thailand,” he said, referring to Ministry of External Affairs.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the former leader of Myanmar who has been detained since the country’s 2021 coup, is safe following the earthquake, BBC Burmese services reported, citing sources.

The 79-year-old civilian leader was imprisoned in the capital Naypyidaw by the military, though her current location remains unknown.

Cape Diamond, a Myanmar-based journalist who reports under a pseudonym, wrote on X that “Suu Kyi is safe and fine”, citing a close aide to the former civilian leader.

There is unlikely to be any official update on her situation, given the lack of information provided by the junta throughout the civil war.

China’s president Xi Jinping extended condolences to Myanmar’s leader after Friday’s devastating earthquake, Chinese state media Xinhua and CCTV reported on Saturday.

Tremors were also felt across the border in China’s southwestern remote and mountainous Yunnan province. Some damage was also reported in China.

China earlier said it was ready to help with humanitarian assistance and dispatched a tranche of aid along with rescue workers.

China’s foreign ministry said the country stands ready to do its best to provide emergency humanitarian assistance and support to the earthquake-affected area in Myanmar.

It said it wants to “help people there carry out disaster relief and rescue and pull through this trying time.”

Small aftershocks continued to rock Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, which was the epicentre of the earthquake, overnight and into Saturday morning.

Residents in many areas spent the night in the streets, setting up their bedding in open areas.

One of the aftershocks measured 6.4 magnitude shortly after the major earthquake on Friday.

At least 694 have been confirmed dead and 1,670 are injured after a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake caused devastation across Myanmar.

The death toll was expected to rise as hundreds remained trapped in rubble, senior general Min Aung Hlaing said as he made a rare appeal for global assistance in a televised address.

Saturday’s update marked a significant rise after the junta reported 144 deaths on Friday.

City authorities in Bangkok have revised the number of people killed in Friday’s earthquake down to six after initially reporting 10 deaths.

At least 22 people have been injured, and a search continues for 101 missing people.

The previous death toll late Friday was 10.

Authorities said they lowered the toll because first responders had mistaken some critical cases at the scene as being dead, but when they reached the hospital, they could be resuscitated.

At least two buildings were evacuated overnight in Bangkok as volunteers inspected buildings for damage.

Nearly 2,000 more are to be inspected on Saturday.

Myanmar has indeed faced tragedy after tragedy in the last 80 years. The leader of its independence movement, Aung San, was assassinated in 1947, just as he was poised to become Burma’s first post-independence prime minister, reports Annabel Venning.

Then in 1962, just as Burma’s ethnic minority groups were about to get greater autonomy, the military staged a coup, renamed the country Myanmar, and so began decades of repressive military rule that continues today.

Aung San’s daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been imprisoned by the military on and off since 1989. In 2020, she led the National League for Democracy (NLD) to election victory but the military prevented the NLD from taking power. In December 2022, they sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to 30 years in prison, later reduced to 27, under trumped-up charges of corruption and treason, meaning that she will not be released until she is over 100.

An estimated 200,000 people are believed to have died of disease and starvation in 2008 after Myanmar’s military regime refused to allow aid agencies access in the wake devastating floods brought by Cyclone Nargis.

Mark Farmaner, the director of Burma Campaign UK, says: “There’s a feeling in Myanmar of: ‘Not this, after everything else that we have suffered.’”

Allies China and Russia have dispatched rescue teams to Myanmar after it was rocked by a powerful earthquake, killing 140 people.

A 37-member team from China’s Yunnan province reached the city of Yangon early Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The team carried emergency relief supplies such as life detectors, earthquake early warning systems and drones, and it is expected to assist in disaster relief and medical treatment efforts.

Russia’s emergencies ministry dispatched two planes carrying 120 rescuers and supplies, according to a report from the official Tass news wire.

“Based on orders from the Russian president and emergencies minister, a group of Russian rescuers has departed to Myanmar on two planes from Zhukovsky Airport outside Moscow to help address the aftermath of a powerful earthquake,” Tass reported that a ministry spokesperson said.

Ireland is ready to assist those affected the earthquake, deputy premier Simon Harris has said.

Speaking at The Curragh in Co Kildare, Mr Harris said that the thoughts of the people of Ireland are with those affected by the quake.

Mr Harris – who is also Ireland’s foreign affairs minister – said his department is not aware of any Irish citizens impacted, but said its embassy in Thailand is available for assistance.

“My thoughts and I know the thoughts of people right around the country are with the people of Myanmar and Thailand after the very significant earthquake today,” he said.

“The Irish Government stands ready to assist in any ways that we can and of course we’re looking to fully assess the impact of that earthquake with the UN and other international partners.

“But right now, our hearts go out to the people of that region.”

A rescue worker from the Moe Saydanar charity told Reuters it had retrieved at least 60 bodies from monasteries and buildings in Pyinmana, near the capital Naypyidaw, and more people were trapped.