Aid rushes into Myanmar as earthquake's death toll continues to rise

Emergency aid has streamed into Southeast Asia in the two days since a massive earthquake struck Myanmar and Thailand. Relief efforts are focused on Myanmar, where the estimated death toll rose to 1,644 by Sunday.

The number of dead from Friday's 7.7 magnitude quake is expected to increase.  The number of injured was 3,408, while the estimated number of missing rose to 139 on Sunday.

The earthquake's epicentre was near Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city with 1.5 million people. In neighbouring Thailand, the death toll from the quake rose to 17.

While food, medicine and other vital supplies have reached Myanmar, a report issued Saturday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said rescue efforts have been hampered by a severe shortage of medical supplies including trauma kits, blood bags, anesthetics, assistive devices, essential medicine and tents to house health workers.

"We fear it may be weeks before we understand the full extent of destruction caused by this earthquake," said Mohammed Riyas, the Myanmar director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

Amid the earthquake crisis, the Myanmar military conducted airstrikes on villages Sunday, according to the Karen National Union, one of the country's oldest ethnic armies.

The group said that under normal circumstances, the military would be prioritizing relief efforts but instead is focused on "deploying forces to attack its people."

A spokesperson for the junta did not reply to queries about the group's statement.

Myanmar has been locked in civil war with multiple armed opposition groups since a 2021 coup, when the military seized power from the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

In badly hit Naypyidaw, Myanmar's third-largest city, a man who had been trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building for around 40 hours was pulled out alive by rescue teams from Singapore and Myanmar on Sunday, Myanmar's army-run TV reported.

According to fire officials, the man had been trapped underneath a collapsed three-storey building and was extracted using "cutting and breaking equipment" to tear through the concrete. He remains in stable condition and has been taken to a local hospital.

In Thailand, search efforts by rescue workers and K-9 units continued Sunday in the capital Bangkok at the scene of an under-construction tower that collapsed in the quake.

A mother of a missing construction worker was seen deeply distraught as she watched the search mission on Sunday, and repeatedly shouted out for her daughter's name.

At least 78 people remain trapped under the debris of the collapsed building, but the conditions of the rubble pile and the unstable structure are hindering rescue efforts.