Myanmar quake deaths rise as survivor search intensifies

What happened

The official death toll from Friday's magnitude-7.7 earthquake in central Myanmar has topped 2,000, the country's military junta said Sunday night. That number was "expected to rise sharply" as the damage became clear outside Mandalay, the city of 1.2 million near the epicenter, The Wall Street Journal said, and as the clock "inched closer to the 72 hours that most people trapped in rubble are reasonably expected to survive." At least 18 people were killed in Thailand, where Friday's temblor toppled a skyscraper under construction in Bangkok, more than 600 miles from the epicenter.

Who said what

The "smell of decaying bodies permeated the streets" of Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city and former royal capital, as "people worked frantically by hand to clear rubble in the hope of finding someone still alive," The Associated Press said. China, Russia, India, Thailand, Singapore and the United Nations have sent emergency teams into the country, but rescue efforts have "hampered by buckled roads, downed bridges, spotty communications and the challenges of operating in a country in the midst of a civil war."

The earthquake is "not just a disaster" but a "complex humanitarian crisis layered over existing vulnerabilities," said Alexander Matheou, the regional director for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, per Reuters. The military junta that seized power in 2021 made a rare appeal for foreign aid after the extent of the damage became clear, but it also continued bombing affected rebel-held areas.

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What next?

Early U.S. Geological Survey modeling suggested that the death toll "could rise above 10,000 and that economic losses might surpass the value of the country's gross domestic product," the Journal said. "Sadly, I fear we will find more bodies than survivors," rescue volunteer Myo Zaw told The New York Times. "The heat in Mandalay is intense, causing rapid decomposition. In some cases, we locate the bodies only because of the smell."