Myanmar is observing a week of national mourning as the death toll from the devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck on 28 March 2025 climbs to at least 2,719.
According to junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, over 4,500 people have been injured, and at least 441 remain missing. The toll is expected to rise further as rescuers reach isolated towns and villages cut off by the quake’s destruction.
The earthquake, described as shallow and particularly violent, hit just before 1 p.m. local time on Friday. At 12:51 p.m. on Tuesday—four days after the disaster—sirens rang out across the country as citizens observed a minute’s silence to remember those lost.
Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city with 1.7 million residents, suffered some of the worst destruction.
Emergency workers, volunteers, and relatives paused outside collapsed buildings to pay tribute. Flags on official buildings are flying at half-mast until 6 April.
The Sky Villa apartment complex in Mandalay has become one of the city’s most tragic sites, with rescuers continuing to pull bodies from the rubble amid the stench of decomposition.
A crematorium on the city’s outskirts has received hundreds of victims for disposal, and more are expected.
State media reported that nearly 650 people have been rescued alive from destroyed structures across Myanmar, a small but significant relief amid widespread devastation.
Among them was a 63-year-old woman who was found alive after being trapped for more than 90 hours under rubble. She was immediately transported to a hospital for treatment.
In Mandalay, hundreds are now sleeping in the open, either because their homes were destroyed or they fear further aftershocks.
“I don’t feel safe,” watchmaker Soe Tint told AFP. “There are six or seven-floor buildings beside my house leaning, and they can collapse anytime.”
As the death toll from last week’s earthquake in Myanmar climbs to 2,700, many survivors are opting to sleep outdoors, expressing fears that it still isn’t safe to return home. pic.twitter.com/4uLC9Ho0Lv
— DW News (@dwnews) April 1, 2025
Many residents are living in makeshift shelters or on blankets laid across roads. At a collapsed examination hall, where hundreds of monks had gathered for an exam, belongings of the victims remain untouched, a haunting reminder of the lives lost.
Before the quake, Myanmar was already in crisis due to ongoing civil conflict triggered by the military’s coup in 2021. The United Nations estimates that 3.5 million people were already displaced, with many at risk of hunger and lacking access to basic services.
Despite the scale of the disaster, there have been continued reports of airstrikes by the military in contested regions.
UN special envoy Julie Bishop has called for an immediate ceasefire and urged all parties to focus on humanitarian relief and the protection of civilians.
An alliance of three ethnic minority armed groups has declared a one-month pause in hostilities to support earthquake response efforts.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing also made an uncommon appeal for foreign assistance, breaking from past tendencies to reject outside help during crises.
More than 1,000 foreign rescue personnel have since arrived in Myanmar to assist in ongoing recovery operations.
The World Health Organization estimates that over 10,000 buildings were either destroyed or severely damaged in the earthquake, complicating aid logistics and emergency shelter provision.
Meanwhile, the effects of the earthquake extended beyond Myanmar’s borders. In Thailand, Bangkok authorities reported that 20 people were killed when a 30-storey building under construction collapsed during the quake’s tremors.
Officials have since confirmed that substandard steel was used in the building’s construction. The office tower, which was still incomplete, collapsed despite the city’s distance from the epicentre. Structural failure was attributed to the use of faulty materials.
Thitipas Choddaechachainun, head of a working group under Thailand’s Ministry of Industry, said that the steel was traced to a factory that had previously been ordered to shut down in December 2024.
“The steel used did not meet the required safety standards for high-rise construction,” he said.
Authorities have launched a broader investigation into how the steel entered the construction supply chain. Officials are also reviewing whether enforcement lapses contributed to the incident, and whether the building’s developers knowingly accepted substandard materials.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt has ordered immediate safety inspections at high-rise construction sites citywide.
The Ministry of Industry and the Department of Public Works are jointly leading a safety audit.
Though Bangkok is not situated on a major fault line, the incident has renewed calls for stricter seismic compliance. Structural engineers have stressed that regional tremors can severely affect buildings not designed to absorb such shocks.
As Myanmar continues its search and recovery efforts, the broader region is grappling with the aftermath of a quake whose impacts have extended beyond borders—exposing vulnerabilities in construction, disaster response, and governance.
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