A strong earthquake struck near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, on Friday, damaging or collapsing bridges and buildings across a swath of Southeast Asia. More than 1,000 people were killed and more than 2,300 injured, Myanmar’s military government said Saturday. With the full extent of the disaster still emerging, those numbers are likely to rise.
The 7.7-magnitude quake struck just before 1 p.m. local time, and a strong, 6.4-magnitude aftershock followed 11 minutes later. The shaking was felt in southern China and Vietnam and as far away as Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, where a tall building under construction collapsed, killing at least eight people.
International aid started to arrive on Saturday in Myanmar, which has been ravaged by a four-year-long civil war and isolated by the efforts of its military rulers to limit access to the internet. Long lines formed at gas stations. In Bangkok, people gathered at the site of the collapsed building, awaiting news of those still missing in the rubble, where rescuers were at work.
