Myanmar and Thailand earthquake live: Death toll soars to almost 700 as dozens trapped under Bangkok skyscraper

The Indian international ministry stated it has despatched a primary tranche of 15 tonnes of aid materials to Myanmar.

The help consists of tents, blankets, sleeping luggage, meals packets, hygiene kits, turbines, and important medicines.

The Indian Air Power aircraft landed in Yangon on Saturday morning.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi additionally expressed issues over the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand.

“Praying for the protection and wellbeing of everybody. India stands prepared to supply all doable help. On this regard, requested our authorities to be on standby. Additionally requested the MEA to stay in contact with the governments of Myanmar and Thailand,” he stated, referring to Ministry of Exterior Affairs.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the previous chief of Myanmar who has been detained because the nation’s 2021 coup, is protected following the earthquake, BBC Burmese providers reported, citing sources.

The 79-year-old civilian chief was imprisoned within the capital Naypyidaw by the army, although her present location stays unknown.

Cape Diamond, a Myanmar-based journalist who experiences beneath a pseudonym, wrote on X that “Suu Kyi is protected and advantageous”, citing an in depth aide to the previous civilian chief.

There’s unlikely to be any official replace on her state of affairs, given the lack of know-how supplied by the junta all through the civil struggle.

China’s president Xi Jinping prolonged condolences to Myanmar’s chief after Friday’s devastating earthquake, Chinese language state media Xinhua and CCTV reported on Saturday.

Tremors had been additionally felt throughout the border in China’s southwestern distant and mountainous Yunnan province. Some injury was additionally reported in China.

China earlier stated it was prepared to assist with humanitarian help and dispatched a tranche of support together with rescue employees.

China’s international ministry stated the nation stands able to do its finest to supply emergency humanitarian help and help to the earthquake-affected space in Myanmar.

It stated it needs to “assist folks there perform catastrophe aid and rescue and pull via this making an attempt time.”

Small aftershocks continued to rock Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest metropolis, which was the epicentre of the earthquake, in a single day and into Saturday morning.

Residents in lots of areas spent the evening within the streets, organising their bedding in open areas.

One of many aftershocks measured 6.4 magnitude shortly after the main earthquake on Friday.

A minimum of 694 have been confirmed lifeless and 1,670 are injured after a robust 7.7 magnitude earthquake prompted devastation throughout Myanmar.

The loss of life toll was anticipated to rise as lots of remained trapped in rubble, senior normal Min Aung Hlaing stated as he made a uncommon enchantment for international help in a televised deal with.

Saturday’s replace marked a big rise after the junta reported 144 deaths on Friday.

Metropolis authorities in Bangkok have revised the variety of folks killed in Friday’s earthquake down to 6 after initially reporting 10 deaths.

A minimum of 22 folks have been injured, and a search continues for 101 lacking folks.

The earlier loss of life toll late Friday was 10.

Authorities stated they lowered the toll as a result of first responders had mistaken some important circumstances on the scene as being lifeless, however once they reached the hospital, they could possibly be resuscitated.

A minimum of two buildings had been evacuated in a single day in Bangkok as volunteers inspected buildings for injury.

Practically 2,000 extra are to be inspected on Saturday.

Myanmar has certainly confronted tragedy after tragedy within the final 80 years. The chief of its independence motion, Aung San, was assassinated in 1947, simply as he was poised to develop into Burma’s first post-independence prime minister, reports Annabel Venning.

Then in 1962, simply as Burma’s ethnic minority teams had been about to get better autonomy, the army staged a coup, renamed the nation Myanmar, and so started many years of repressive army rule that continues right now.

Aung San’s daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been imprisoned by the army on and off since 1989. In 2020, she led the Nationwide League for Democracy (NLD) to election victory however the army prevented the NLD from taking energy. In December 2022, they sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to 30 years in jail, later lowered to 27, beneath trumped-up fees of corruption and treason, which means that she is not going to be launched till she is over 100.

An estimated 200,000 persons are believed to have died of illness and hunger in 2008 after Myanmar’s army regime refused to permit support companies entry within the wake devastating floods introduced by Cyclone Nargis.

Mark Farmaner, the director of Burma Marketing campaign UK, says: “There’s a sense in Myanmar of: ‘Not this, after every little thing else that we’ve got suffered.’”

Allies China and Russia have dispatched rescue groups to Myanmar after it was rocked by a robust earthquake, killing 140 folks.

A 37-member workforce from China’s Yunnan province reached town of Yangon early Saturday, the official Xinhua information company reported.

The workforce carried emergency aid provides reminiscent of life detectors, earthquake early warning techniques and drones, and it’s anticipated to help in catastrophe aid and medical remedy efforts.

Russia’s emergencies ministry dispatched two planes carrying 120 rescuers and provides, in keeping with a report from the official Tass information wire.

“Primarily based on orders from the Russian president and emergencies minister, a bunch of Russian rescuers has departed to Myanmar on two planes from Zhukovsky Airport exterior Moscow to assist deal with the aftermath of a robust earthquake,” Tass reported {that a} ministry spokesperson stated.

Eire is able to help these affected the earthquake, deputy premier Simon Harris has stated.

Talking at The Curragh in Co Kildare, Mr Harris stated that the ideas of the folks of Eire are with these affected by the quake.

Mr Harris – who can be Eire’s international affairs minister – stated his division is just not conscious of any Irish residents impacted, however stated its embassy in Thailand is accessible for help.

“My ideas and I do know the ideas of individuals proper across the nation are with the folks of Myanmar and Thailand after the very vital earthquake right now,” he stated.

“The Irish Authorities stands prepared to help in any ways in which we will and naturally we’re seeking to absolutely assess the impression of that earthquake with the UN and different worldwide companions.

“However proper now, our hearts exit to the folks of that area.”

A rescue employee from the Moe Saydanar charity instructed Reuters it had retrieved no less than 60 our bodies from monasteries and buildings in Pyinmana, close to the capital Naypyidaw, and extra folks had been trapped.