The death toll from a huge earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand has surpassed 1,600, Myanmar’s military government has said on state television, as rescuers dig through the rubble of collapsed buildings in a desperate search for survivors.
The statement from the military government confirmed 1,644 dead and more than 3,400 injured, with at least 139 people still missing after the magnitude 7.7 earthquake.
Mandalay was hit heavily; it is Myanmar’s second-largest city and close to the epicentre of the quake.
“It was a pretty uncomfortable night for lots of people. They chose to sleep outside. We saw them in parks putting mattresses outside their homes,” Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng reported from the capital, Naypyidaw.
“There were still aftershocks, several we felt this morning. They were not significantly large ones, but enough to make people feel uncomfortable returning into built-up structures,” he added.
Humanitarian operations in Myanmar have been badly hindered by damaged roads and infrastructure, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Saturday.
The earthquake severely damaged critical infrastructure, including major bridges and roads, making it difficult for humanitarian operations to access areas in need, OCHA said.
“Damage to the Yangon-Nay Pyi Taw-Mandalay expressway led to service disruptions, with cracks and surface distortions forcing highway buses to halt operations”, the UN agency said in a statement.
“Infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and buildings were affected, leading to casualties and injuries among civilians. Search and rescue operations are currently being carried out in the affected areas,” Myanmar’s military also noted.
To facilitate earthquake relief efforts, the country’s shadow National Unity Government, which coordinates the popular struggle against the ruling military, announced a two-week unilateral partial ceasefire starting Sunday in earthquake-affected areas.
An announcement issued Saturday night said its armed wing, the People’s Defence Force (PDF), would “collaborate with the U.N. and non-governmental organizations to ensure security, transportation, and the establishment of temporary rescue and medical camps,” in the areas it controls.
In the Thai capital, Bangkok – located 1,000km (620 miles) from the epicentre in Myanmar, about 10 more deaths have been confirmed.
The shallow magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar in the early afternoon on Friday, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock.
The quake destroyed buildings, downed bridges, and buckled roads across swaths of Myanmar, and due to patchy communications in remote areas, many believe the true scale of the disaster has yet to emerge.
Harry Roberts, a volunteer with the international disaster relief charity Shelterbox, said the situation in Myanmar was likely to be “very complex” and “really serious” considering the government’s rare appeal for international help.
“That request must trickle down to immigration and customs, so nongovernmental organisations like ourselves can get the immediate aid in there,” Roberts said.
“At this stage, it’s largely about gathering information and assessing the accessibility into the country.”
Rescuers in Bangkok laboured through the night on Friday, searching for workers trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed, reduced in seconds to a pile of rubble and twisted metal by the force of the shaking.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said about 10 people had been confirmed killed across the city, most in the skyscraper collapse. But up to 100 workers were still unaccounted for at the building site, close to the Chatuchak weekend market that is a magnet for tourists.
“We are doing our best with the resources we have because every life matters,” Chadchart told reporters at the scene.
“Our priority is acting as quickly as possible to save them all,” the governor said.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from the site of the skyscraper collapse, said people in Bangkok were not used to having earthquakes.
“There have been more than 70 aftershocks in the last 24 hours,” he said.
“While they haven’t really been felt here in Bangkok, each report gets people very, very nervous. People are incredibly nervous that this might happen again.”
Bangkok city authorities said they would deploy more than 100 engineers to inspect buildings for safety across the city after receiving more than 2,000 reports of damage.
