Rescue hopes fading four days after quake kills more than 2,700 in Myanmar and Thailand

(CNN) — Rescuers are desperately searching for survivors more than four days after a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, toppling buildings as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok and sending tremors through nearby Chinese provinces.

The first 72 hours after a quake are widely regarded as the “golden” window to reach victims buried alive under rubble - after that period the chances of survival without a water source diminishes rapidly.

More than 2,700 people are now confirmed dead in Myanmar after what was the largest earthquake to hit the war-ravaged country in more than a century, authorities say. Experts fear the true death toll could take weeks to emerge.

Gripping stories of survival and devastating accounts of loss are starting to come out alongside reports of widespread damage.

The quake caused bridges and buildings to collapse, including in Bangkok, where authorities are trying to free dozens believed to be trapped under the rubble of an under construction high rise.

The epicenter was recorded in Myanmar’s central Sagaing region, near the former royal capital Mandalay, home to around 1.5 million people, as well as multiple historic temple complexes and palaces. Those at the epicenter of the quake are largely cut off following the collapse of a key bridge over the country’s Irrawaddy River, according to local officials.

Meanwhile, foreign aid and international rescue teams have started arriving in Myanmar after the military junta issued a rare plea for help.

A US team is traveling to Myanmar, also known as Burma, after receiving a formal request for assistance from the junta government, according to the state department.

Friday’s quake was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country in years and comes as Myanmar reels from a civil war that since 2021 has damaged communication networks, battered health infrastructure and left millions without adequate food and shelter.

Myanmar observed a minute of silence at 12:51 p.m. local time Tuesday (2:21 a.m. ET), the exact moment the earthquake struck on Friday, state-run MRTV said.

Here’s what we know.

Massive human toll

At least 2,719 people are dead, according to the country’s military government. A further 4,521 people are injured and 441 are reported missing, its leader said in an update Tuesday.

“Most among the missing are assumed to be dead. The chance is narrow for them to remain alive as it has been over 72 hours,” said General Min Aung Hlaing, speaking from the capital Naypyidaw.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that the final death toll could surpass 10,000 people, based on early modeling.

In Bangkok, hundreds of miles from the epicenter, at least 20 people were killed.

Of these, 13 died after an under-construction building collapsed in minutes, leaving dozens trapped under the rubble.

As of Tuesday morning, some families were still gathered at the site – four days after the building’s collapse – holding onto hope that their loved ones could be pulled out alive.

The earthquake was the most powerful to strike Myanmar since it was rocked by a 7.9-magnitude temblor in 1912 in Taunggyi, a city also in central Myanmar.

Seven fatalities were reported elsewhere in the capital, authorities said.

Aftershocks, the largest of which was a 6.7-magnitude tremor Friday, continued throughout the weekend, according to the USGS.

The ruling military junta has marked March 31 to April 6 as national mourning days, during which the national flag will fly at half-staff, state-run MRTV said.

Widespread devastation

The level of devastation wreaked on the country “hasn’t been seen in over a century in Asia,” according to an official from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Speaking to CNN from Yangon, Marie Manrique, IFRC’s Myanmar program coordinator, said that there was now just a “small window of opportunity” left to reach those people trapped under the rubble.

Stories of survival and determination are starting to emerge as rescuers continue to grapple with the scale of devastation.

Video seen by CNN showed two teenage girls and their grandmother trapped in a small air pocket under the rubble of their home desperately crying for help, banging on broken concrete with a butter knife. The trio were eventually pulled to safety after an antagonizing 15 hour wait for help.

Two women, who asked not to be identified, also told CNN they were also trapped after their hotel collapsed in Mandalay. Their faces covered in dust and hair matted from the destruction, they waited for five frightening hours, sitting crouched under broken ceilings amid piles of rubble.

“We were trapped in total darkness but the good thing is we had a phone and we could use its light to see. If we didn’t have that we could have died. We could see to clear rubble from on top of each other,” one of the women said.

But alongside the miraculous rescues stories of devastating loss have reverberated through the country.

More than 160 monks were crushed to death at the U Hla Thein office in Mandalay, where they were about to take an exam at the time of the quake, a rescue officer told state-run Myanmar Radio and Television on Monday.

“There was only one exit in the room. Just as they flocked to the exit the building collapsed, which killed them,” the officer said, adding 85 monks had also been injured.

The quake shattered some of the city’s mosques, which were busy with worshippers attending Friday prayers, one man said.

Since the quake struck, communication has been difficult with people in Myanmar, including Mandalay – making it hard to assess the true extent of the damage.

Save the Children, an NGO providing aid in affected areas, relayed the testimony of a father in the badly hit eastern Shan state.

“Children and the elderly experienced severe dizziness and fainting… The earthquake was incredibly strong, and we were all in shock. Young children cried and screamed in fear ,” he said, adding that there was now an urgent need for food and water.

In the south, the townships of Nyaungshwe, Kalaw and Pinlaung are among the hardest-hit by the earthquake, according to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“Thousands of people are spending the nights on the streets or (in) open spaces due to the damage and destruction to homes or fearing further quakes,” the agency said Saturday.

In Naypyidaw, the country’s military capital 160 miles (257 kilometers) south of Mandalay, a three-story hospital partially collapsed, trapping patients beneath the rubble, Chinese state media said.

Some 1,700 houses, 670 monasteries, 60 schools and three bridges were reported to be damaged, and there are concerns for the structural integrity of large dams, OCHA said. It also noted damage to hospitals, universities, and historical and public buildings.

The bridge over the mighty Irrawaddy River near Mandalay was destroyed, with nearly every section of the bridge fully or partially collapsed into the water.

Po Po, a teacher in Sagaing City, told CNN: “The old Sagaing bridge is destroyed and the new one is no longer usable, making it difficult for aid to come from other cities.”

Foreign aid

Several countries have deployed resources to assist in rescue and relief operations after Myanmar’s military leaders, normally averse to foreign involvement, asked for help.

A team from China was the first to reach Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon Saturday, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said, as Beijing pledged $13.8 million in humanitarian assistance.

Russia was quick to follow China in deploying its own team of specialists, including dog teams, anesthesiologists and psychologists, the country’s emergencies ministry said.

The United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia will donate aid packages totaling more than $20 million in humanitarian assistance.

US President Donald Trump described the quake as “terrible” and vowed that the United States would also send assistance. US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said a team was expected to arrive in the country by Monday evening.

“A USAID team of humanitarian experts based in the region are traveling to Burma now to identify the people’s most pressing needs, including emergency shelter, food, medical needs and access to water,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a State Department briefing.

Their travel to the country comes days after the deadly earthquake struck, with many attributing the delay in the US team’s arrival to the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID. Bruce rejected the notion that the tardiness was due to the drastic cuts at USAID.

India, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have also announced they would send help.

The UN announced an immediate pledge of $5 million in aid for Myanmar and said it was mobilizing teams for the relief effort.

However, rescue teams face a daunting task after infrastructure weakened by Myanmar’s civil war was further damaged by the quake. Efforts are also likely to be complicated as the quake’s impact zone includes areas that have seen intense fighting since the junta seized power in 2021 and where competing administrations – the military government and rebel groups – operate separately.

Aid groups say wrecked roads, rubble and communication blackouts are impeding relief efforts, according to the UN. Severe shortages of medical supplies – including trauma kits, blood bags, anesthetics and assistive devices – have also complicated relief efforts, OCHA said Saturday.

Health workers on the ground are struggling to field streams of injured people, according to OCHA.

The IFRC has launched an emergency appeal for 100 million Swiss francs ($113 million) to provide relief in Myanmar over the next two years.

“The need for support is urgent,” Alexander Matheou, regional director for Asia-Pacific at the IFRC, said in a press release on Sunday. “This is not just a disaster; it is a complex humanitarian crisis layered over existing vulnerabilities.”

More than 3 million people were already displaced by conflict since the military coup and had been receiving a “only a fraction” of the aid they needed, said Richard Horsey of the International Crisis Group.

“My real worry is that the international community will not respond in the scale that is needed,” he told CNN.

Why was this earthquake so destructive?

Myanmar is on an active earthquake belt, but many of the temblors usually happen in sparsely populated areas, not cities like those affected Friday.

The USGS and Germany’s GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). Shallower earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

The energy released by the quake was the equivalent of 334 atomic bombs, a geologist told CNN, warning that aftershocks could be felt for months.

Scientists say the quake occurred along the Sagaing fault, which runs north-south through Myanmar, and that it is a “strike-slip” fault, when two tectonic plates shift mostly horizontally.

Brian Baptie, seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said the rupture moved the earth five meters (16.4 feet) over about a minute in some areas.

Because most of the buildings in the area are made from timber or unreinforced brick masonry, he said, they are highly vulnerable to quake damage.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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