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The official death toll of the earthquake that shattered central Myanmar surpassed 1,600 people, the country\u2019s military leaders said on Saturday, as desperate rescue workers raced to find survivors and began grappling with a monumental disaster in a nation already racked by civil war.<\/p>\n
The powerful earthquake struck on Friday near Mandalay, the country\u2019s second-largest city, and volunteer emergency workers there combed through the ruins of apartments, monasteries and mosques in search of anyone left alive. Stepping over downed power lines and buckled roads, crews toiled as the repressive military authorities kept a watchful eye.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are at least a hundred people still trapped inside,\u201d said Thaw Zin, a volunteer who was sitting in front of a destroyed condominium. \u201cWe are trying our best with what we have.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The death toll is expected to rise steeply, although Myanmar\u2019s military junta, which overthrew an elected government in 2021, has sought to restrict what information leaves the country. Preliminary modeling by the U.S. Geological Survey suggested the number of deaths could be more than 10,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The earthquake has raised questions about whether Myanmar\u2019s military rulers can manage to stay in power<\/a>, having already lost ground to rebels amid a bloody civil war<\/a> that has left nearly 20 million of the country\u2019s roughly 54 million people without enough food or shelter even before the quake, according to U.N. officials.<\/p>\n Even after the disaster struck, Myanmar military jets dropped bombs on Friday evening on a rebel-held village, Naung Lin, in northern Shan State. \u201cI just can\u2019t believe they did airstrikes at the same time as the earthquake,\u201d said Lway Yal Oo, a Naung Lin resident.<\/p>\n The National Unity Government, the shadow government, said<\/a> on Saturday that it would implement a two-week pause in offensive military operations by armed groups over which it has control in quake-hit areas beginning on Sunday. But the shadow authority, made up of opposition politicians and others committed to democratic rule, reserved the right to act defensively. <\/p>\n Parts of rebel-held Myanmar were among those hit, and anti-military forces in the Sagaing region were using elephants to help clear destroyed roads, the shadow government said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Anger against the military was rising in the wake of the disaster on Saturday. Mr. Thaw Zin, the volunteer in Mandalay, said that soldiers and police officers had turned up at disaster sites but did nothing to help. \u201cThey are here hanging around with their guns,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t need guns, we need helping hands and kind hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But the junta has also acknowledged the enormous extent of the catastrophe, which caused the collapse of a building 600 miles away in Bangkok and sent shock waves around Southeast Asia. The military government declared a state of emergency in six regions of Myanmar, including rebel-controlled areas where millions of displaced people live with scarce internet.<\/p>\n The army\u2019s leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, surveyed disaster sites on Friday and visited a makeshift hospital in Naypyitaw, about 170 miles south of Mandalay, state media showed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The junta, although isolated and under sanctions from much of the world, also made an extraordinary appeal for help \u2014 a call that some began to answer despite the dizzying logistical obstacles<\/a> in getting that aid to survivors.<\/p>\n