Time begins to run against the hope of finding survivors. When 48 hours of earthquake are completed 7.7 magnitude earthquake on Friday in Burma (Myanmar), Hundreds of rescuers from several countries have arrived to reinforce the search for survivors in the most affected regions. The last official balance of victims in that country speaks of at least 1,600 dead and is feared to increase in the next few days.
The official television channel MRTV, at the service of the Military Board that holds power from the February 2021 coup, has reported the Deployment of Firefighters, Technicians and Lifeguards of Russia, China, India, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.
One of the teams, from the Chinese province of Yunnan, has found an old man who had been buried under the debris after the earthquake in the city of Naipyidó alive alive. The man has remained caught almost 40 hours under the remains of a three -story hospital, where he was at the time of the tremor. Yunnan’s team detected the vital signs of the old man and managed to release him after a complicated operation.
A story of hope between innumerable tragedies. Like that of a young inhabitant of the same city that after hours of search has located, still alive, his mother under the debris of the building where he was. She tried to accompany her holding her hand but finally she died.
A good part of the help teams have been deployed in Mandalay, the second most populous city in the country, with 1.5 million inhabitants and where important damage has been recorded. There it is feared that dozens of people have been trapped under collapsed buildings and that most of them cannot be reached or removed without heavy machinery, according to emergency equipment.
“My teams in Mandalay are using work gloves, ropes and basic equipment to excavate and get people out,” One of those humanitarian workers has said, asking that his name not revealed, to the Reuters agency. “There are innumerable trapped and missing. The death toll is impossible to count at this time due to the number of trapped and unidentified.”
“Everything is in ruins (…) nobody wants to return to their homes”, A neighbor of the city tells Efe, close to the epicenter. “Collapsed buildings, blocked roads … Some sites cannot even be reached by car. The neighbors live on the street or the weather, among ruins of collapsed buildings,” he adds on the phone.
“The situation is very sad, I can’t even talk. I can’t find many of my friends,” the resident tells Efe, and indicates that there are not yet enabled camps for displaced and that the neighbors help each other.
In Bangkok, the capital of Thailandin the place where The 33 plants building collapsed that was under constructionrescue equipment, surrounded by shattered concrete piles and twisted metal, continued their efforts to rescue dozens of workers trapped under the rubble.
Teerasak Thongmo, commander of the Thai police, acknowledged that it is a time trial effort. “Our team is trying to find someone who can be alive, in the first 72 hours we have to try to save those who are still alive,” he said.
Near the rescue operations, family and friends of the missing construction workers they expected news. Some collapsed. “Ploy, Ploy, Ploy, my daughter, I’m here for you!”, A woman lamented, while she was hugged by two others. “Ploy, do you hear me?”
Sitting in a plastic chair a few meters from the works to remove the debris, da da, a construction employee from Burma, does not lose hope that any of his four missing friends will be alive.
“They were trapped by the collapse of the building. I have not been able to contact them. They arrived in Thailand only 1 year ago and began working on this work from day one,” he says. Next to her, about twenty workers also from remaining attentive to bailouts, who observe carefully for holes or above a wall.