Rescue volunteers, many of them poorly equipped local people, raced to find survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings across central Myanmar, two days after a huge earthquake killed more than 1,700 people in the country and at least 18 in neighbouring Thailand.Red Cross officials said Myanmar was facing “a level of devastation that hasn’t been seen over a century in Asia”, after a 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the centre of the country on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.The quake has damaged and destroyed countless buildings including hospitals, damaged roads and bridges, and brought down power supplies, phone and internet connections.“People who need help are continually calling us, but even now there are difficulties for them to reach us,” said a rescue worker in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city.Ko Doe, a rescue worker in Sagaing, said his team believed as many as 100 bodies were still to be removed from collapsed buildings in the town. “A bad smell is coming from the bodies that remain trapped, and which we are unable to save immediately. We need backhoes, cranes, and heavy-duty diggers to demolish the damaged buildings and retrieve the bodies,” he said.In Thailand, rescue efforts continued at the site of a collapsed 30-storey tower in the Chatuchak district of Bangkok, which fell to the floor while under construction, trapping dozens of workers. Officials from Bangkok metropolitan administration said signs of life had been detected in one area of the site early on Sunday morning. Eleven people have been confirmed dead and workers are frantically searching for 78 who remain missing.Myanmar’s ruling junta said in a statement on Saturday that at least 1,700 people were killed and more than 3,400 injured in the country, with at least 300 more missing.The true scale of the devastation in Myanmar, which has been gripped by conflict for the past four years, could take days or even weeks to emerge, according to aid experts.The US Geological Service’s predictive modelling estimated Myanmar’s death toll could top 10,000 and losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output.On Sunday morning, a small aftershock struck, sending people scurrying out of a hotel for safety, after a similar tremor felt late Saturday evening, AFP reported.Truckloads of firefighters gathered at one of Mandalay’s main fire stations to be dispatched to sites around the city.China and Russia, two allies of the junta, have sent aid and personnel, while India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have also sent assistance.The US pledged $2m (£1.5m) in aid “through Myanmar-based humanitarian assistance organisations” and said in a statement that an emergency response team from USAid, which is undergoing massive cuts under the Trump administration, was deploying to Myanmar.It follows a rare request by Myanmar’s isolated junta for international help. The junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, said on Sunda 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]
Two days following the earthquake in Myanmar, volunteer rescuers are urgently searching for survivors.
