Myanmar quake toll reaches around 1,700 as junta chief warns fatalities could rise

The toll from Myanmar’s earthquake continues to rise, as foreign rescue teams and aid rushed into the impoverished country, where hospitals were overwhelmed and some communities scrambled to mount rescue efforts with limited resources.

The 7.7-magnitude quake, one of Myanmar’s strongest in a century, jolted the war-torn Southeast Asian nation on Friday, leaving around 1,700 people dead, 3,400 injured and over 300 missing, the military government says.

The junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, warned that the number of fatalities could go up and his administration faced a challenging situation, state media reports, three days after he made a rare call for international assistance.

The quake also shook parts of neighboring Thailand, bringing down an under-construction skyscraper and killing 18 people across the capital, according to Thai authorities.

At least 76 people remained trapped under the debris of the collapsed building, where rescue operations continued for a third day, using drones and sniffer dogs to hunt for survivors.