Myanmar quake: what we know
A powerful earthquake centred in Myanmar has killed more than 150 people in the war-torn country and neighbouring Thailand and caused widespread damage.
Here is what we know:
- Powerful, and shallow -
The 7.7-magnitude quake hit northwest of Myanmar's Sagaing at 12:50 pm (0650 GMT) on Friday at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles).
It was followed minutes later by a powerful 6.7-magnitude aftershock and a dozen smaller tremors.
The quake was felt across the region, with shaking reported from India to the west and China to the east, as well as Cambodia and Laos.
The quake hit along the Sagaing Fault that runs from the coast to Myanmar's northern border, according to earthquake scientists Judith Hubbard and Kyle Bradley.
It "has long been considered one of the most dangerous strike-slip faults on Earth" because of its proximity to major cities Yangon and Mandalay, as well as capital Naypyidaw, they wrote in an analysis.
The fault is comparatively simple and straight, which geologists believe can lead to especially large quakes, they added.
- Over 150 killed -
At least 144 people have been confirmed dead in the quake in Myanmar, according to the country's junta chief.
However, Min Aung Hlaing warned the toll was likely to rise given the widespread destruction across the country.
Myanmar's four years of civil war, sparked by the military seizing power, have also weakened the country's emergency and health services, leaving them ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster.
In Thailand, 10 people were killed in Bangkok, most in the collapse of an under-construction skyscraper.
But up to 100 more construction workers were believed trapped in the rubble of the building, near the sprawling Chatuchak market.
Rescue operations continued throughout the night, though it was proving complicated to pick through the unstable rubble.
- Widespread damage -
The quake caused extensive damage in Myanmar.
There was massive destruction in Mandalay, where multiple buildings collapsed into piles of rubble and twisted metal coated in dust, dotted with people attempting rescues.
The Ava bridge running across the Irawaddy river from Sagaing, built nearly 100 years ago, collapsed into the swirling waters below.
There were reports of damage to Mandalay airport, potentially complicating relief efforts, as well as to the city's university and palace, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
In Naypyidaw, AFP reporters saw buildings toppled and roads ruptured.
At a hospital in the capital, patients were being treated outdoors after the quake damaged the building, bringing down the emergency department's entrance.
Electricity outages were reported in several places, with power limited to four hours in Yangon due to quake damage.
Communications across affected areas were also patchy, with phone networks largely down.
In Bangkok, a crane collapsed at a second building site and the city shut down metro and light rail services overnight to inspect for damage.
Several hundred people slept in parks overnight, city authorities said, either unable to get home or worried about the structural integrity of their buildings.
The quake prompted thousands of people to flee shaking buildings in Thailand, where quakes are rare.
Even hospitals were evacuated, with one woman delivering a baby in the street in Bangkok, and a surgeon continuing to operate on a patient after being forced to leave the theatre mid-operation.
- Aid pleas, offers -
The scale of the devastation prompted Myanmar's isolated military regime to make a rare plea for international assistance.
Myanmar's junta chief invited "any country, any organisation" to help with relief and said he he "opened all ways for foreign aid".
Offers of assistance flooded in, with neighbour India among the first to say it was ready to help.
The European Union offered support, and US President Donald Trump said Washington had "already spoken" with Myanmar about aid.
"It's a real bad one, and we will be helping," he told reporters.
The World Health Organization said it was preparing to surge support in response to "a very, very big threat to life and health."
burs-sah/pdw/fox
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cuban students call boycott over mobile tariff hikes
Cuban students called for a boycott of classes Wednesday over new mobile internet tariffs that include steep fees for those who exceed their monthly data limits. Cubans say the tariff hikes implemented by state telecoms company Etecsa on May 30 will leave them with only a few gigabytes of data per month as purchasing additional data will be prohibitively expensive. Students have been particularly angered by the new pricing system, under which top-ups must be paid in hard-to-come-by-dollars or at a steep increment in Cuban pesos. While acknowledging "progress" in negotiations with Etecsa, student union president Jose Almedia told AFP: "We want more." On Tuesday evening, student leaders at the University of Havana's mathematics and informatics faculty called for a boycott of classes in order to try to force Etecsa to annul the tariff hikes. Fellow leaders of the union chapter in the philosophy, history and sociology faculty backed the boycott, as did some students from the arts department. It was not immediately clear how many students heeded the call for the protest. But an arts student who attended classes on Wednesday told AFP there were "practically no students" in the faculty. - Eye-watering top-up costs - Etecsa gave no forewarning of its new pricing structure, which it said was necessary to fund investment in infrastructure. Rafael Gomez, an 18-year-old student at the University of Havana, said the new tariffs left mobile users with the bare minimum in terms of data. "We were used to a certain system," where customers can top up their credit as often as they like, he told AFP. Now, they are limited to 6GB of data, which Gomez noted "is nothing and if you want to buy more, it costs over 3,000 pesos ($25), which you cannot afford on a regular Cuban salary," Gomez said. The average monthly salary on the communist island is 5,700 pesos, or $47. Faced with the outcry from students, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Sunday that the government was looking at "options" for "the most vulnerable sectors, including our dear students." After talks with student bodies Etecsa on Monday announced that students would be allowed two monthly top-ups at 360 pesos ($3), compared with one for the rest of the population. Further top-ups have to be paid in dollars or at the eye-watering price of over 3,000 pesos. The concessions failed to assuage the anger of many students. Brian Gamez, a history student, told AFP he favored "peaceful protests" but was afraid that a mobilization could lead to vandalism. The Cuban government has been wary of stoking popular discontent since July 2021 when thousands of people took to the streets in a rare show of defiance to demonstrate over shortages of fuel, food, medicine and electricity. One person was killed and dozens injured in the protests, which Havana accused Washington of orchestrating. jb-rd/cb/md
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Irish university to cut links with Israel over Gaza war
Ireland's prestigious Trinity College Dublin said on Wednesday that it would cut all links with Israel in protest at "ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law". The university's board informed students by email that it had accepted the recommendations of a taskforce to sever "institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel". The recommendations would be "enacted for the duration of the ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law", said the email sent by the board's chairman Paul Farrell, and seen by AFP. The taskforce was set up after part of the university's campus in central Dublin was blockaded by students for five days last year in protest at Israel's actions in Gaza. Among the taskforce's recommendations approved by the board were pledges to divest "from all companies headquartered in Israel" and to "enter into no future supply contracts with Israeli firms" and "no new commercial relationships with Israeli entities". The university also said that it would "enter into no further mobility agreements with Israeli universities". Trinity has two current Erasmus+ exchange agreements with Israeli universities: Bar Ilan University, an agreement that ends in July 2026, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which ends in July 2025, the university told AFP in an email. The board also said that the university "should not submit for approval or agree to participate in any new institutional research agreements involving Israeli participation". It "should seek to align itself with like-minded universities and bodies in an effort to influence EU policy concerning Israel's participation in such collaborations," it added. Ireland has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel's response to the October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas militants that sparked the war in Gaza. Polls since the start of the war have shown overwhelming pro-Palestinian sympathy in Ireland. In May 2024, Dublin joined several other European countries in recognising Palestine as a "sovereign and independent state". It then joined South Africa in bringing a case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza -- charges angrily denied by Israeli leaders. In December, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar ordered the closure of the country's embassy in Dublin, blaming Ireland's "extreme anti-Israel policies". The University of Geneva also announced Wednesday that it has ended its partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem following student protests, saying it no longer reflected the institution's "strategic priorities". pmu/jwp/jkb/giv
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sweden tries ISIL member over burning death of Jordanian pilot in 2015
A convicted Swedish member of ISIL has gone on trial in Stockholm, accused of war crimes for his role in the horrific 2015 killing of a captured Jordanian pilot, who was burned alive in Syria. 'Osama Krayem has, together and in agreement with other perpetrators belonging to IS [ISIL], killed Maaz al-Kassasbeh,' prosecutor Reena Devgun told the district court on Wednesday. 'Osama Krayem, in uniform and armed, guarded and led the victim Moaz al-Kassasbeh to a metal cage, where the latter was then locked up. One of the co-perpetrators then set fire to Moaz al-Kassasbeh, who had no possibility to defend himself or call for help,' Devgun said. The case is considered unique as the other ISIL members involved in the brutal killing, which sparked international outrage at the time, are presumed dead, Swedish prosecutor Henrik Olin told the AFP news agency. Krayem, 32, wearing a dark blue shirt and with a thick beard and long, loose dark hair, had his back to the handful of journalists and spectators who followed Wednesday's proceedings behind a glass wall in the high security courtroom in Stockholm's district court. He appeared calm as the prosecution laid out the charges, which could result in a life sentence if Krayem is convicted. In the 22-minute video of the killing, the victim is seen walking past several masked ISIL fighters, including Krayem, according to prosecutors. The pilot, who was 26 years old, is then seen being locked in the cage and praying as he is set on fire. Prosecutors have been unable to determine the exact date of the murder, but the investigation has identified the location. The defendant's lawyer, Petra Eklund, told AFP before the start of the trial that her client admitted to being present at the scene, but disputed the prosecution's version. 'He denies the acts for which he is prosecuted,' she said. 'He acknowledges having been present at that place during the event, but claims not to have acted in the manner described by the prosecutors in the account of the facts,' she added. Krayem was identified thanks to a scar on the suspect's eyebrow, visible in the video and spotted by Belgian police, which led to the investigation being opened, said Devgun when the charges were announced last week. The pilot's father, Safi al-Kassasbeh, told AFP on Wednesday the family hoped Krayem would 'receive the harshest penalty according to the magnitude of the crime'. 'This is what we expect from a respected and fair law,' he said. Krayem is already serving long prison sentences for his role in the Paris and Brussels attacks in 2015 and 2016, 30 years and life respectively. He now faces charges of 'serious war crimes and terrorist crimes' for his alleged participation in al-Kassasbeh's killing. Al-Kassasbeh's killing shocked Jordan, which at the time was participating in the US-led coalition's strikes against ISIL positions in Syria – the reason ISIL gave for killing the Syrian pilot. Jordan had declared a period of mourning following the pilot's death. On December 24, 2014, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria. The pilot was captured the same day by ISIL fighters situated near the central city of Raqqa and burned alive in a cage sometime before February 3, 2015, when a gruesome video emerged, according to the prosecution. ISIL, which at the time controlled large chunks of Syria and Iraq, had been demanding the release of Sajida al-Rishawi – a woman held by Jordanian authorities since 2005 – in exchange for al-Kassasbeh's life. Rishawi was sentenced to death 'for conspiracy to carry out terror acts' after a triple bomb attack on the Radisson SAS hotel in the capital Amman. The propaganda video, in which ISIL also called for the killing of other Jordanian pilots, was one of the earliest videos released by the group. Krayem has been temporarily handed over to Sweden for the trial, which is scheduled to last until June 26.
