Myanmar quake death toll passes 3,300

YANGON: The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen above 3,300, state media said Saturday, as the United Nations aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation.

The March 28 quake flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, according to new figures published by state media.

More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses.

A United Nations estimate suggests that more than three million people may have been affected by the 7.7-magnitude quake, compounding previous challenges caused by four years of civil war.

The UN’s top aid official on Saturday met with victims in the central Myanmar city of Mandalay -- situated close to the epicentre and now grappling with severe damage across the city. “The destruction is staggering,” Tom Fletcher wrote in a post on X. “The world must rally behind the people of Myanmar”.

The new toll was announced after the country’s military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing returned from a rare foreign trip to a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, where he met with leaders including the prime ministers of Thailand and India.

The general’s attendance at the summit courted controversy, with protesters at the venue displaying a banner calling him a “murderer” and anti-junta groups condemning his inclusion. His armed forces have ruled Myanmar since a 2021 coup, when they wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a multi-sided conflict that has yet to be resolved.