A 63-year-old lady was rescued alive from the wreckage of a building in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on Tuesday, four days after the nation was rocked by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake, as the likelihood of discovering other survivors diminished.
The president of the nation’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, announced on Tuesday that at least 2,719 people had been killed in the earthquake and that 441 were still unaccounted for. It was felt powerfully in Thailand, where a high-rise construction project collapsed, killing 21 people, and it destroyed over 10,000 buildings in Myanmar.
The fire brigade in Myanmar’s capital said the woman was successfully pulled from the rubble 91 hours after being buried, in a joint rescue with teams from India, China, and Russia.
After 72 hours, experts believe, the chances of finding survivors drastically decrease.
The official newspaper of the military government, Global New Light of Myanmar, also stated on Tuesday that four individuals had been rescued the previous day from the remains of the Sky Villa, a sizable apartment complex that had collapsed during the earthquake by a group of Chinese rescuers. Among them were a five-year-old and a pregnant mother who had spent over sixty hours trapped.
The same publication also stated that two teenagers used their phone flashlights to guide themselves as they crawled out of the same building’s debris. The rescue workers were able to use what they were told to locate their grandmother and a sibling.
Russia, China, India, the United Arab Emirates, and a number of Southeast Asian nations have sent rescue teams to the scene. Although an American team had been dispatched, the embassy reported it had not yet arrived.
After just returning from one of the most severely hit regions close to the epicentre in central Myanmar, Julia Rees of the UN Children’s Fund reported that entire communities had been levelled and that the damage and psychological suffering were enormous.
“Yet this issue continues to develop. The tremors are still going strong. Rescue and search efforts are still in progress. In a statement, she stated, “Bodies are still being removed from the debris.”
“To be clear, there is a huge demand that is growing every hour. The opportunity to save lives is fading.”
Rescue operations have become more difficult in Myanmar due to the civil war, as the military took control in a coup in 2021. Amnesty International reported that the government continues to carry out airstrikes in earthquake-affected areas.
“Human rights standards must be fully upheld, and the humanitarian needs of survivors must be given top priority, according to Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman, who spoke on behalf of Myanmar’s military and all other parties participating in earthquake relief efforts.”
“You can’t ask for help while bombing at the same time. Attacking civilians and conducting airstrikes in the same area where the earthquake occurred is cruel and demonstrates a flagrant disrespect for human rights.”
