Burmese rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Mandalay, 30 hours after a devastating earthquake struck Myanmar, putting the death toll at more than 1,600 but it is still preliminary.
Cheers echoed as Phyu Lay Khaing, 30, was pulled from the rubble of the Sky Villa Condominium by rescuers and carefully placed on a stretcher . Her husband Ye Aung, who had been anxiously awaiting news, hugged her as the stretcher was lifted. “At first, I didn’t think she was alive,” Ye Aung said as he waited for his wife to emerge from the debris. “I’m very happy to hear good news.” A Red Cross official said more than 90 people may be trapped under the remains of the condominium.
After the shallow earthquake of magnitude 7.7 , which struck Myanmar in the early afternoon of Thursday and was followed a few minutes later by an aftershock of magnitude 6.7, the tremors continue. At 3:50 tonight (Italian time), the American Geoseismic Institute (USGS) recorded an earthquake of magnitude 5.1 near the capital Naypyidaw at a depth of 10 km , preceded by about 9 hours by a 4.2 in Shwebo, about 70 km north of Mandalay.
The toll of the earthquake in Myanmar, still provisional, is devastating: over 1,600 dead – but it is estimated that there could be 10,000 – and more than 3,000 buildings destroyed . In Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, the number of victims has risen to 17, with 32 injured and 83 missing (most buried in the collapse of a 30-story tower under construction).
(Online Union)