BANGKOK, March 29 — A powerful earthquake killed more than 140 people in Myanmar yesterday, authorities said, toppling buildings and wrecking infrastructure across a wide area, including a skyscraper under construction in neighbouring Thailand.
Much of the devastation was in Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay, which lies close to the epicentre of the 7.7 magnitude quake that struck at lunchtime and was followed by a powerful aftershock and several more moderate ones.
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 multi-story 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 worker added.
Myanmar's military junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing said there would be more deaths and casualties and invited "any country" to provide help and donations.
Speaking at the White House later in the day, United States (US) President Donald Trump said he had spoken with officials in Myanmar and that his administration would be providing some form of assistance.
"We are going to be helping," he told the press.
Despite the administration's push to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and cut nearly all remaining jobs, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said USAID disaster experts were ready to help, including with items like food and potable water.
"USAID has maintained a team of disaster experts with the capacity to respond if disaster strikes. We are ready to move now.
"There has been no impact on our ability to perform those duties, those requests for aid, if and when they come in," she told a press briefing.
In the Thai capital Bangkok, an official said at least nine people had been killed. Rescuers were searching through the rubble of the tower block that collapsed.
Mandalay, with a population of about 1.5 million, is Myanmar's ancient royal capital and the centre of its Buddhist heartland. Rescue workers were trying to reach dozens of monks trapped under rubble in the Phaya Taung Monastery, said the emergency worker in Amarapura.
Buildings, bridges and roads were wrecked, residents and local media said.
State-run MRTV said at least 144 people had been killed in Myanmar and 732 injured.
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People stand near a collapsed temple following an earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, on March 28, 2025, in this screengrab taken from social media video. — Picture by REUTERS[/caption]
The junta is locked in a struggle to put down insurgents fighting its rule, a situation that is likely to complicate the rescue and relief operation.
"We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking. I witnessed a five-storey building collapse in front of my eyes.
"Everyone in my town is out on the road, and no one dares to go back inside," a Mandalay resident told Reuters.
A rescue worker from the Moe Saydanar charity told Reuters it had retrieved at least 60 bodies from monasteries and buildings in Pyinmana, near the capital Naypyidaw, and more people were trapped.
In the purpose-built capital itself, a 1,000-bed hospital sustained damage and roads were left with huge fissures, state media reported.
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres said the UN was mobilising in Southeast Asia to help those in need.
Opposition National Unity Government diplomatic spokesperson Zin Mar Aung said fighters from the anti-junta militias known as the People's Defence Forces would provide humanitarian help.
A US government analysis based on the strength and depth of the quake estimated there could be thousands of deaths and severe economic loss, with the Sagaing and Meiktila regions worst hit.
State media said the quake caused the collapse of buildings in five cities and towns, as well as a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway. Images showed the destroyed Ava Bridge over the Irrawaddy River, its arches leaning into the water.
A Mandalay resident said destruction stretched across the whole city, and one neighbourhood, Sein Pan, was on fire.
Roads were damaged, phone lines disrupted, and there was no electricity, said the resident, who declined to be named.
At least three people died after a mosque in Taungoo partially collapsed, two witnesses said.
"We were saying prayers when the shaking started... Three died on the spot," one said.
Local media reported a hotel in Aung Ban, in Shan state, crumbled into rubble, with the Democratic Voice of Burma reporting two people had died and 20 were trapped.
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People gather on a street near damaged buildings after a strong earthquake struck central Myanmar, in Mandalay, Myanmar, on March 28, 2025. — Picture by REUTERS[/caption]
Worst Time
Amnesty International said the earthquake could not have come at a worse time for Myanmar, given the number of displaced people, the existing need for relief aid, and cuts to US aid by the Trump administration.
Restricted media access meant a clear picture of the extent of damage and loss might not emerge for some time, said the group's Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman.
Since overthrowing the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run Myanmar, leaving the economy and basic services, including healthcare, in tatters.
An armed opposition, comprising established ethnic armies and new resistance groups formed since the coup, has seized swathes of territory and driven the junta out of border areas, increasingly hemming it into the central lowlands.
The UN noted that fighting has displaced more than three million people in Myanmar, with widespread food insecurity and over a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance.
Myanmar has also been hit by natural disasters in recent years, and the internationally isolated junta has struggled to respond adequately. It lies on the boundary of two tectonic plates and is among the world's most seismically active countries.
The University of Bristol's Myanmar academic Nyi Nyi Kyaw said the country was "wholly unable to deal with the shock and its aftermath" due to the breakdown in civil society.
In Bangkok, people ran onto the streets in panic, among them hotel guests in bathrobes and swimming costumes, as water cascaded down from an elevated pool at a luxury hotel.
Of the confirmed casualties in the Thai capital, eight died in the building collapse and a ninth at another location, said Bangkok Deputy Governor Tavida Kamolvej. The rescue operation at the building site said over 100 people were missing.
— Reuters
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Rescue personnel search for casualties at the site of a building that collapsed after a strong earthquake struck central Myanmar, which affected Bangkok as well, with people pouring out of buildings in the Thai capital in panic after the tremors, in Bangkok, Thailand, on March 28, 2025. — Picture by REUTERS[/caption]
