Myanmar earthquake: Survivors still being found but hopes begin to fade as deaths exceed 2,700

Rescue efforts in Myanmar after a devastating earthquake are hindered by a civil war, with thousands dead and missing.

Rescue workers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building in Myanmar’s capital on Tuesday (April 1, 2025), but hope was fading of finding many more survivors of the violent earthquake that killed more than 2,700 people, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by a civil war.

The fire department in Naypyitaw said the woman was successfully pulled from the rubble 91 hours after being buried when the building collapsed in the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit midday Friday (March 28, 2025). Experts say the likelihood of finding survivors drops dramatically after 72 hours.

The head of Myanmar’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, told a forum for relief donations in Naypyitaw that 2,719 people have now been found dead, with 4,521 others injured and 441 missing, Myanmar’s state MRTV television reported.

He said Friday’s (March 28, 2025) earthquake was the second most powerful in the country’s recorded history after a magnitude 8 quake east of Mandalay in May 1912.

The casualty figures are widely expected to rise. The earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, making the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.

EDITORIAL | Lessons from a quake: on the Myanmar earthquake

Most of the reports so far have come from Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, which was near the epicentre of the earthquake, and Naypyitaw, the capital.