Powerful quake rocks Myanmar: At least 144 people were killed and more than 730 injured after a 7.7-magnitude quake struck Myanmar near the city of Mandalay, according to the head of the country's military government. A strong aftershock of 6.4 magnitude also hit Myanmar, with tremors felt across Thailand and in China.
The quake triggered the collapse of buildings hundreds of miles away in Thailand. At least three people have died in the nation’s capital, and authorities are racing to free 81 people believed to be trapped under the rubble of an under-construction high-rise in the city, officials said.
Myanmar, one of Asia’s poorest nations, is reeling from a civil war sparked by a 2021 military coup. Weak infrastructure makes it ill-equipped to deal with major natural disasters. Swathes of the country are run by a patchwork of militias, making it extremely difficult to gather reliable information. The military also regularly cuts communications in conflict zones.
A strike-slip fault — when two tectonic plates move side by side — triggered the powerful earthquake in Myanmar that was felt across the region, according to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
“The India and Eurasia plate actually moved side by side with each other, and that caused this intense shaking right at the surface,” he said.
Van Dam warned that aftershocks are anticipated, and that the search and recovery effort “will continue for days, if not weeks.”
Rescuers are racing through rubble and assessing the damage across hundreds of miles of Southeast Asia after a powerful quake struck the war-ravaged country of Myanmar on Friday, sending ripples as far south as Bangkok and as far east as China.
Many people are feared to have died. In the Thai capital, Bangkok, a high-rise building collapsed. In Myanmar, which is in the throes of a civil war and where internet access is heavily restricted, it may take some time to appreciate the scale of the tragedy.
