Man rescued from rubble five days after Myanmar earthquake

Rescue crews save man from Myanmar hotel rubble after earthquake, as international aid efforts ramp up.

Rescue crews in Myanmar pulled a 26-year-old man out alive from the rubble of the capital city hotel where he worked early on Wednesday (April 2, 2025), but most teams were finding only bodies five days after a massive earthquake hit the country.

After using an endoscopic camera to pinpoint Naing Lin Tun's location in the rubble and confirm that he was alive, the man was gingerly pulled through a hole jackhammered through a floor and loaded on to a gurney nearly 108 hours after he was trapped in the hotel where he worked.

Shirtless and covered in dust, Mr. Naing appeared weak but conscious in a video released by the local fire department, as he was fitted with an IV drip and taken away. State-run MRTV reported that the rescue in the city of Naypyitaw was carried out by a Turkish and local team and took more than nine hours.

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit midday Friday (March 28, 2025), toppling thousands of buildings, collapsing bridges and buckling roads. So far, 2,886 people have been reported dead in Myanmar and another 4,639 injured, according to state television MRTV, but local reports suggest much higher figures.

The earthquake also rocked neighbouring Thailand, causing the collapse of a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok. One body was removed from the rubble early Wednesday (April 2, 2025), raising the death total in Bangkok to 22 with 34 injured, primarily at the construction site.

Myanmar has been wracked by civil war and the earthquake is making a dire humanitarian crisis even worse, with more than 3 million people displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance, one of a powerful group of militias that has taken a large swath of the country from the military, announced a unilateral one-month ceasefire on Tuesday (April 1, 2025) to facilitate the humanitarian response. The shadow opposition National Unity Government had already called a ceasefire for its forces.