BANGKOK (AP) 鈥 Rescue workers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building in Myanmar's capital on Tuesday, but hope was fading of finding many more survivors of the violent earthquake that killed at least 2,000, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by a bloody civil war.
The fire department in Naypyitaw said the woman was successfully pulled from the rubble early Tuesday, when the building collapsed in the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred at midday Friday. Experts say the likelihood of finding survivors drops dramatically after 72 hours.
The earthquake's epicenter was near the country's second-largest city Mandalay, and so far the military-run government has reported 2,065 people killed, more than 3,900 injured and 270 missing.
Those figures are widely expected to rise, but the earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, leaving the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.
Most of the reports so far have come from Mandalay and Naypyitaw.
Myanmar's Fire Services Department said 403 people have been rescued in Mandalay and 259 bodies have been found so far. In one incident alone, 50 Buddhist monks who were taking a religious exam in a monastery were killed when the building collapsed and 150 more are thought to be buried in the rubble.
The World Health Organization said more than 10,000 buildings overall are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Myanmar.
The earthquake also rocked neighboring Thailand, causing to collapse and burying many workers.
Two bodies were pulled from the rubble on Monday but . Overall, there were 20 people killed and 34 injured in Bangkok, primarily at the construction site.
In Myanmar, search and rescue efforts across the affected area paused briefly at midday on Tuesday as people stood for a minute in silent tribute to the dead.
Foreign aid workers have been arriving slowly to help in the rescue efforts, but progress was still slow with a lack of heavy machinery in many places.
In one site in Naypyitaw on Tuesday, workers formed a human chain, passing chunks of brick and concrete out hand-by-hand from the ruins of a collapsed building.
The Myanmar military government's official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday that a team of Chinese rescuers saved four people the day before from the ruins of the Sky Villa, a large apartment complex that collapsed during the quake. They included a 5-year-old and a pregnant woman who had been trapped for more than 60 hours.
The same publication also reported two teenagers were able to crawl out of the rubble of the same building to where rescue crews were working, using their cell phone flashlights to help guide them. The rescue workers were then able to use details from what they told them to locate their grandmother and sibling.
from several countries are on the scene, including from Russia, China, India, the United Arab Emirates and several Southeast Asian countries. The U.S. Embassy said an American team had been sent but had not yet arrived.
Meantime, multiple countries have pledged millions in aid to assist Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations with the monumental task ahead.
Even before the earthquake, more than 3 million people had been displaced from their homes by Myanmar's brutal civil war, and nearly 20 million were in need, according to the United Nations.
Many were already lacking in basic medical care and standard vaccinations, and the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure by the earthquake raises the risk of disease outbreaks, warned the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
鈥淭he displacement of thousands into overcrowded shelters, coupled with the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure, has significantly heightened the risk of communicable disease outbreaks,鈥 OCHA said in its latest report.
鈥淰ulnerability to respiratory infections, skin diseases, vector-borne illnesses such as dengue fever, and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles is escalating,鈥 it added.
Shelter is also a major problem, especially with the monsoon season looming.
Since the earthquake, many people have been sleeping outside, either because homes were destroyed or out of fear of aftershocks.
Myanmar's military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into significant armed resistance and a brutal civil war.
Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places were dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach even before the quake.
Military attacks and those from some anti-military groups have not stopped in the aftermath of the earthquake, though the shadow opposition 春色直播 Unity Government has called a unilateral ceasefire for its forces.
The NUG, established by elected lawmakers who were ousted in 2021, called for the international community to ensure humanitarian aid is delivered directly to the earthquake victims, urging 鈥渧igilance against any attempts by the military junta to divert or obstruct humanitarian assistance.鈥
鈥淲e are in a race against time to save lives,鈥 the NUG said in a statement.
鈥淎ny obstruction to these efforts will have devastating consequences, not only due to the impact of the earthquake but also because of the junta's continued brutality, which actively hinders the delivery of life-saving assistance.鈥
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Grant Peck contributed to this story.
