Myanmar healthcare facilities overwhelmed, WHO says, and scale of earthquake deaths and injuries ‘not fully understood’ – live

WHO: earthquake has ‘overwhelmed healthcare facilities’ in Myanmar, with three hospitals reported destroyed

The World Health Organization said it has reports of three hospitals destroyed and 22 partially damaged in the region affected by Friday’s earthquake.

“The scale of deaths and injuries is not yet fully understood and the numbers are expected to increase,” the UN agency said, Associated Press reports.

The statement continued:

The earthquake’s devastation has overwhelmed healthcare facilities in the affected areas, which are struggling to manage the influx of injured individuals. There is an urgent need for trauma and surgical care, blood transfusion supplies, anaesthetics, essential medicines, and mental health support.

WHO earlier issued an urgent flash appeal for $8m (£6.1m / €7.4m) for emergency support.

Key events

Another body has been removed from the site of a collapsed high-rise building in Bangkok, Reuters reports, citing volunteer rescuer group Fire and Rescue Thailand. It brings Thailand’s confirmed death toll from last week’s earthquake to 19. At least 70 people are still unaccounted for in Thailand. The death toll in Myanmar is currently put at 1,700.

Reuters reports, citing Chinese news agency Xinhua, that four people have been pulled from under buildings in Mandalay, the city in Myanmar near the epicentre of Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake.

It quoted Yue Xin, head of a Chinese search and rescue team deployed to assist, saying “It doesn’t matter how long we work. The most important thing is that we can bring hope to the local people.”

The BBC has spoken to a resident in the Pyigyitagon area of Mandalay, who told the news service that people were feeling “hopeless and helpless”.

It quoted Ruate, who only gave his first name, saying “We haven’t dared sleep in our house since the earthquake happened on Friday. Power has been down and supplies are running out. Yesterday we saw bodies being brought out of collapsed buildings in our neighbourhood. It’s very sobering. We are feeling hopeless and helpless.”

An aerial drone photo taken on 31 March 2025 shows a view of Mandalay in Myanmar. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

WHO: earthquake has ‘overwhelmed healthcare facilities’ in Myanmar, with three hospitals reported destroyed

The World Health Organization said it has reports of three hospitals destroyed and 22 partially damaged in the region affected by Friday’s earthquake.

“The scale of deaths and injuries is not yet fully understood and the numbers are expected to increase,” the UN agency said, Associated Press reports.

The statement continued:

The earthquake’s devastation has overwhelmed healthcare facilities in the affected areas, which are struggling to manage the influx of injured individuals. There is an urgent need for trauma and surgical care, blood transfusion supplies, anaesthetics, essential medicines, and mental health support.

WHO earlier issued an urgent flash appeal for $8m (£6.1m / €7.4m) for emergency support.

AFP has spoken to relatives anxiously waiting at the site of a collapsed building in Bangkok.

Daodee Paruay said she had been at the site for two days, hoping for a miracle. Her brother was an electrician working on site, and he is believed to be under the rubble. “We wait, we wait.” she said.

Naruemol Thonglek was also there, hoping her boyfriend would be found. She told AFP she had lit incense and candles, prayed and wished, begging her boyfriend to return alive. “If you can hear my voice, if you’re still alive, please shout and let the officials know,” she said, calling out to him.

Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires showing the continued effects of Friday’s earthquake in Thailand. At least 18 people were confirmed dead, 33 injured, and 78 remain missing in Bangkok.

Thai prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra (C) visits the site of a collapsed building in Bangkok, Thailand, 31 March. Photograph: Narong Sangnak/EPA

People evacuate from a high building after reports of building structure swaying caused by a possible aftershock in Bangkok, 31 March. Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit/EPA

Rescue workers carry the body of a victim at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on 31 March. Photograph: Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP/Getty Images

A relative of a missing worker plays with a K9 rescue dog named “Safari” during a search operation in Bangkok. Photograph: Narong Sangnak/EPA

Reuters has a quick snap that Bangkok deputy governor Tavida Kamolvej has said a vital sign was detected in the wreckage of a high-rise building that collapsed in last week’s earthquake.

Associated Press reports that at the U Hla Thein monastery in Mandalay, 270 monks were taking a religious exam at the time the earthquake struck.

Rescue workers at the scene Monday said 70 were able to escape, but 50 have already been found dead, and 150 are still unaccounted for.

News agency AFP has spoken to people gathered for Eid prayers in the street in Mandalay on Monday.

Locals said that the minaret of the Sajja South mosque in the Muslim neighbourhood of Mawyagiwah crashed to the ground in the quake, killing 14 children and two adults. Earlier a Myanmar Muslim organization said more than 700 worshipers had been killed when the quake struck durign Friday prayers.

26-year-old Win Thiri Aung told AFP “In normal times, it is full of joy when it is Eid. Our hearts are light. This year, we are not like that. It is a test from Allah. It is a reminder from him that we need to turn towards him.”

The agency quoted Aung Myint Hussein, chief administrator of the Sajja North mosque, saying “We have to pray on the road, feeling sadness and loss. The situation is so dire that it’s hard to express what is happening. We were terrified when we saw the destruction. It feels as if our entire lives have been shattered by this series of tremors.”

Archie Bland

In today’s First Edition newsletter, my colleague Archie Bland looks at how Myanmar is the victim of a devastating natural disaster – but also how a set of interlocking political and military circumstances have badly exacerbated the crisis. Here is an excerpt …

Communications with many of the affected areas are poor, partly because many of them have been ravaged by the country’s ongoing civil war, with much of the country out of the control of the ruling junta.

Some of the factors causing that blackout predate the disaster: the military regime has shut off the internet and social media in recent years as part of its efforts to silence dissent. And hundreds of communication towers run by an army-controlled firm, Mytel, were destroyed by opponents of the regime in the aftermath of the February 2021 coup that brought them back to power.

Over the last few days, even the government’s own websites have been inaccessible. Phone lines are also down, which has made it very difficult to coordinate rescue efforts, and power networks may not be restored for several days.

As the scale of the disaster became clear, Myanmar’s junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, took the exceptionally rare step of calling for international assistance – a course that the then-dictatorship resisted even in 2008, when Cyclone Nargis killed more than 100,000 people.

Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wires from Myanmar, as rescue operations continue after Friday’s earthquake which has killed at least 1,700 people.

Aftermath of a strong earthquake, in Mandalay
View of a collapsed building, in the aftermath of a strong earthquake, in Mandalay, Myanmar. Photograph: Reuters

Rescuers carry the body of a Buddhist monk recovered at the U Hla Thein Buddhist monastery in Mandalay. Photograph: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

Patients lie on makeshift beds in the compound of Mandalay general hospital on Monday 31 March. Photograph: Sai Aung Main/AFP/Getty Images

A view of the damaged Ottara Thiri hospital in the aftermath of Friday’s earthquake in Naypyidaw, Myanmar. Photograph: Aung Shine Oo/AP

Official death toll at over 1,700 as 60 mosques reported destroyed or damaged

A Myanmar Muslim organization says more than 700 worshipers were killed when the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the country at Friday prayer time during the holy month of Ramadan. The country’s military-led government has put the death toll so far at 1,7000, Associated Press reports.

The news agency states that it is not clear at this moment whether the 700 worshippers, reported dead by the Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network, are included in the government figures given by government spokesperson Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun on state television.

The government has put the number injured at 3,400, and said that more than 300 people are still missing. In a rare moment of hope a woman trapped beneath the remains of a hotel building for nearly 60 hours was pulled out alive on Monday.

World Health Organization issues flash appeal for $8m in humanitarian aid for Myanmar

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued an urgent flash appeal for $8m (£6.1m / €7.4m) for emergency support in Myanmar, after the devastating earthquake, which has killed at least 1,700 people according to official figures.

In a statement the organisation said:

Two powerful earthquakes have devastated central Myanmar, disrupting health services and putting thousands at risk of life-threatening injuries and disease outbreaks. WHO is responding at its highest level of emergency activation – deploying nearly three tonnes of emergency medical supplies within 24 hours and coordinating global emergency medical teams. WHO urgently needs $8m to deliver life-saving trauma care, prevent disease outbreaks, and restore essential health services over the next 30 days.

Welcome and opening summary …

Welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing live coverage of the humanitarian impact of the last week’s earthquake in Myanmar. Here are the headlines …

The death toll from the 7.7-magnitude quake that struck on Friday has surpassed 1,700 and flattened huge swathes of the South-east Asian nation, according to officials
A Myanmar Muslim organization says more than 700 worshipers were killed as the earthquake occurred durign Friday prayers. About 60 mosques were reported damaged or destroyed. Associated Press reports it is unclear if the figure of 700, given by the Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network, is in addition to the official toll
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a flash appeal for $8m (£6.1m / €7.4m) for emergency support in Myanmar
The US Geological Survey’s predictive modelling estimates Myanmar’s death toll could eventually top 10,000 and losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output
Red Cross officials said Myanmar was facing “a level of devastation that hasn’t been seen over a century in Asia”
In neighbouring Thailand, at least 18 people have been killed and rescue efforts are continuing at the site of a collapsed 30-storey tower in Bangkok. Rescuers are scrambling to find 78 people still missing
Rescuers freed a woman from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar’s Mandalay, officials said on Monday, offering a glimmer of hope that more survivors may be found

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WHO: earthquake has ‘overwhelmed healthcare facilities’ in Myanmar, with three hospitals reported destroyed

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