Authorities in Myanmar have held a minute of silence to honour the victims of a catastrophic earthquake that killed more than 2,700 people, including 50 children at one preschool near the city of Mandalay.
The moment of remembrance on Tuesday came as aid groups said communities in the hardest-hit areas were struggling to find food, water and shelter.
The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, which hit around lunchtime on Friday, was the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian country in more than a century, toppling ancient pagodas and modern buildings alike.
Myanmar’s military leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, in a televised address on Tuesday, said the death toll had reached 2,719 and could even exceed 3,000.
He said 4,521 people were injured, and 441 were missing.
At least 20 people were also killed in neighbouring Thailand.
In hard-hit Mandalay in central Myanmar, sirens rang out at 12:51pm (06:21 GMT), the precise time that the quake struck, calling residents to a standstill.
Outside the Sky Villa apartment complex, one of the city’s worst-hit disaster sites, rescue workers stopped and lined up with hands clasped behind their backs to pay their respects.
Officials and attendants stood behind a cordon, watching relatives further back, as the sirens wailed and a Myanmar flag flew at half-mast from a bamboo pole tied to a rescue tent.
‘I don’t feel safe’
Residents of the city said they spent a fourth night sleeping in the open, with their homes destroyed or fearing aftershocks would cause more damage.
“I don’t feel safe. There are six or seven-floor buildings beside my house leaning, and they can collapse anytime,” Soe Tint, a watchmaker, told the AFP news agency.
Some of the survivors have tents, but many – including babies and children – have been bedding down on blankets in the middle of roads, staying as far away as possible from damaged buildings.
In the capital, Naypyidaw, the Myanmar Fire Services Department said rescuers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building on Tuesday, 91 hours after the quake hit.
But authorities said it was unlikely that they would find any more survivors.
The civil war in Myanmar, where the military seized power in a coup in 2021, has also complicated efforts to reach those injured and made homeless by the powerful tremor.
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from Bangkok in Thailand, said many families in central Myanmar were struggling to meet basic needs.
“They do not have connectivity, they don’t have electricity. People are struggling. They are still sleeping outside. At one hospital in the city, people are being treated outdoors, in the extreme heat. Access to water also remains challenging,” she said.
There have also been multiple reports of attacks by the military on armed groups opposed to its rule despite the devastation, Washington noted, adding that some in Myanmar are questioning exactly how willing the military is to help in the search for survivors.
“In the city closest to the epicentre, Sagaing, access has been extremely limited. We know that there is a Malaysian crew on the ground that has been assisting with efforts at a school that collapsed,” she said. “But other crews on the ground say they have essentially been stopped by troops and militias aligned with the junta, stopping them from accessing those areas that are in critical need.”
Aid denied
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said the military needed to allow aid to reach areas of the country not under its control.
“Myanmar’s military has a longstanding practice of denying aid to areas where groups who resist it are active,” Amnesty’s Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman said.
“It must immediately allow unimpeded access to all humanitarian organisations and remove administrative barriers delaying needs assessments.”
The United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) said the victims of the earthquake included 50 children and two teachers, who were killed when their preschool collapsed near Mandalay.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar also reported that some 500 Muslims were killed in the country as the quake struck when worshippers were gathered in mosques to offer Friday prayers.
In Bangkok, rescuers were still scouring the ruins of an unfinished skyscraper that collapsed for any signs of life, but aware that as four days had passed since the earthquake, the odds of finding survivors had lengthened.
“There are about 70 bodies underneath … and we hope by some miracle one or two are still alive,” volunteer rescue leader Bin Bunluerit said at the building site.
Bangkok Deputy Governor Tavida Kamolvej said six human-shaped figures had been detected by scanners, but there was no movement or vital signs. Local and international experts were now working out how to safely reach them, she said.
