VIDEO: Man pulled alive from Myanmar quake rubble after five days
- 18 hours ago
Rescuers freed a man from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar, officials said on Thursday, a glimmer of hope 5 days after a massive earthquake that killed around 3,000 as searchers in Myanmar and Thailand raced against time to find more survivors.
Onlookers applaud as rescuers pull the man from the rubble the hotel alive.
The 26-year-old was freed by a joint team of Myanmar and Turkish rescuers from the ruins of the Hotel Aye Chan Thar in the capital Naypyidaw around 12:30 am Wednesday (1800 GMT on Tuesday), the fire service says.
On Monday, a woman was pulled from the rubble of the Great Wall Hotel in the city of Mandalay, according to a Chinese government post on Facebook.
Mandalay is near the epicentre of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on Friday that wreaked mass devastation in Myanmar and damage in neighbouring Thailand.
In Bangkok, Thailand's capital, emergency crews resumed a desperate search for 76 people believed buried under the rubble of an under-construction skyscraper that collapsed.
After nearly 5 days, fears were growing that the rescuers would find more dead bodies, which could sharply raise Thailand's death toll that stood at 18 on Sunday.
In Myanmar, state media said at least 2,700 people have been confirmed dead.
The United Nations said it was rushing relief supplies to estimated 23,000 quake-hit survivors in central Myanmar.
"Our teams in Mandalay are joining efforts to scale up the humanitarian response despite going through the trauma themselves," said Noriko Takagi, the UN refugee agency's representative in Myanmar. "Time is of the essence as Myanmar needs global solidarity and support through this immense devastation."
