At least 144 people have died and 732 have been injured after a powerful earthquake struck Myanmar, killing at least nine more in neighbouring Thailand where a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok collapsed.The 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit central Myanmar at 12.50pm local time on Friday at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles). Its epicentre was about 11 miles (17.2km) from Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city.Min Aung Hlaing, the chief of Myanmar’s junta, said he expected the death toll to rise and urged “any country, any organisation” to help with relief efforts – a rare request from the isolated military government. The junta said blood was in high demand in the worst-affected areas as concerns grew about how rescuers would even reach some parts of a country already enduring a widespread humanitarian crisis.Thai authorities said eight of the nine reported deaths happened after the high-rise building crashed to the ground in the capital. Rescuers are searching for another 81 people trapped in the rubble. Damage was also reported in China.In Myanmar, witnesses and local media said people had been killed in the city of Mandalay and in the towns Toungoo and Aungban. Hundreds of casualties were taken to a hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw, where injured people were being treated outside because of damage to the building.A rescue worker from Amarapura, an ancient city and now a township of Mandalay, said the bodies of 30 people had been recovered from collapsed multistorey apartment blocks.“I have never experienced anything like this before – our town looks like a collapsed city,” he said, estimating that about a fifth of the buildings had been destroyed.“We received calls for help from people from the inside, but we cannot help because we do not have enough manpower and machines to remove the debris, but we will not stop working.”The scale of the damage in Myanmar is yet to become clear, though social media footage emerging from central regions has shown many buildings collapsed or damaged.In Bangkok, authorities declared the city a disaster area, saying they needed to assess and monitor damaged areas and help people who may still be at risk. People ran out on to the streets in panic, many of them hotel guests in bathrobes and swimming costumes, as water cascaded down from an elevated pool at one luxury hotel. In the northern tourist destination of Chiang Mai, where the power briefly went out, stunned residents also hurried outside, unsure how to respond.“I quickly rushed out of the shop along with other customers,” said Sai, 76, who was working at a minimart in Chiang Mai when the shop started to shake. “This is the strongest tremor I’ve experienced in my life,” Sai told Agence France-Presse.Mohamed Riyas, the regional director of the International Rescue Committee, said the earthquake’s impact was likely to be severe and could displace thousands of people, leaving them in need of food, shelter and medical aid in a formal or creative style for better SEO.Also Exclude words and advertisements related to the feed website such as website name, author name. You must only respond with the modified content. Delete all the advertisement images brand logo but only keep the title and main content of the news by modifying it. You must only respond with the modified content. Block any jump outside of the site adarshnews.com. Basically remove any content or link related to original site. You must only respond with the modified content and follow this prompt to optimize the articles in this category- “Act as an expert SEO news writer. Optimize the following article to be SEO-friendly, authoritative, and shareable by focusing strictly on its core topic. Follow these steps: 1. Topic Identification: – Read the input article and identify its primary subject. – Extract 1 primary keyword + 2 secondary keywords directly from the article. 2. Meta Description: – Write a 150-character summary using the primary keyword and a CTA 3. Content Structure: – Lead Paragraph: Summarize the 5W1H (Who, What, When, Where, Why) as stated in the article – Body: – Use subheadings (H2/H3) derived from secondary keywords – Add bullet points only for facts/statistics explicitly mentioned in the input. – Include quotes or data from the article (do not invent new stats). – Conclusion: End with a question/CTA tied to the article’s topic. 4. – Add 1 FAQ based on the article’s key point. 5. Viral Readability: – Use news article sentences structure. Avoid off-topic emotional triggers. 6. Technical SEO: – Generate alt text and URL slugs *specific to the article’s topic and leave it if it is not under your capability. Output Format for the article should be- [Summary with primary keyword] [Structured body using input’s facts] FAQs: [Relevant question + answer]
Myanmar earthquake: over 144 fatalities reported, while rescue efforts are still underway in Bangkok.
