Myanmar earthquake survivors describe horror

One of the movables in the Burmese BBC, Mandalay BBC, told the rubble with his bare hands, in an attempt to liberate the people asking for help, after hitting an earthquake of 7.7 magnitude in the middle of Myanmarar on Friday.

“People scream help me and help me. I feel despair,” said the man, part of a rescue team consisting of citizens.

Another survivor revealed how she could hear the voices of people trapped inside the Athr Hotel.

“I can hear the crying mothers and friends, because their children are still inside the building.

“This earthquake is a complete disaster,” it continued. “We need help.”

According to official figures, at least 144 people have their lives in Myanmar, with more than 700 people.

But building a clear picture of what is happening exactly throughout the Southeast Asian nation is not easy.

The arrival was limited since 2021, when the army took power after a coup. Foreign journalists are rarely allowed to formally enter due to the lack of freedom of the press.

Many people who spoke to the BBC, and other ports, have not given their names for security reasons.

When the earthquake hit, people – some of them suffering from injuries – were running in the streets, screaming and crying, as a rescue worker said, and the city’s general hospital was full of patients.

“Mashhad is a tragedy,” said one of Mandalay survivors.

“It is like a destroyed city. Some are still stuck under the rubble,” she said. “It was so intense. So much that I haven’t seen anything like that.”

The tremors were so strong that they felt exceeding the borders of Myanmar – in China and Thailand.

In Mandalay, the second largest city in Myanmar, social media pictures showed collapsed buildings, including parts of the historic royal palace.

A 90 -year -old bridge collapsed, while sections of the main highway that connects Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, has been torn to Mandalay.

One of the residents of Yangon told the BBC World Service that Shakes was “very intense” and lasted for about four minutes.

The man, who wanted to stay unidentified for security reasons, described waking up from a nap to the building vibrating violently.

“About three to four minutes lasted,” he said. “I was receiving messages from friends and realized that she was not only in Yangon, but also many places around the country.”

In the Myanmar capital area, NiB Tao, one of the BBC rescue was told that they went to a house where someone was besieged at home, but “they could not be taken out.”

The worker later performed one body and one person in critical condition from the Goldsmith store. People responsible for the store told them that 17 people were still trapped.

“We can only find people where we can hear them,” the rescuer said.

Myanmar officials announced a “collective victims area” at the NiB Tao General Hospital, Where patients lie on gurneys outside, venous drops from temporary stands.

The Military Council also made a rare appeal for international assistance, announcing the state of emergency in six regions.

“We want the international community to send humanitarian aid as soon as possible,” said JUNTA Min Aung Hlaing.

The BBC’s MSF Doctors (MSF) told the BBC that it is struggling to reach the affected areas.

Federica Franco, the head of the Myanmar mission in Myanmar, said her team, which was sent on Friday, had to return because the main roads were damaged, including the high highway that moves from Yangon to Nibidao and Mandala.

“The situation is very complicated because there is a power outage in communication in some of the most difficult areas, and this is due to the ongoing conflict,” Franco said.

People outside Mandalay and Myanmar have faced difficulty in reaching their loved ones.

Shen Thant Sanar, a Myanmar student at the University of Sheffield, told the BBC that she woke up to a feverish call from her mother. The panic filled her mother’s voice because she said that the buildings had collapsed around her.

The student said: “After moments, I entered my aunt, crying; I lost everything. It was a super -heart, and worse when the phone lines were cut.”

She said that none of her family was wounded, “but the destruction is drowned.”

As was the time of Friday prayers there, I learned that many people were inside the mosques that also collapsed, which resulted in the injury of many and caused deaths.

“The streets and buildings around them are now unknown.”

The BBC’s BBC’s Bangkok correspondent felt the earthquake and tried frantically to reach friends and family at their home in Myanmar, but he was unable to contact for a long time.

When they did, a Mandalay resident told them that many buildings had collapsed and the lamp functions have been uprooted.

The resident said: “The city is complete chaos and destroyed it completely.”

Gilaum de Aguaro, an English teacher in Yangon, said the earthquake was “very frightening for children”, between the ages of three and 12 years.

He was suffering from energy cuts and interruptions, which said, “It increases the difficulty of contacting friends and family in Mandalay.”

“We just hope, this is the only thing we can do,” he said. “We feel out of control.”

Additional reports by Liz Roberts, Crystina Falk and Ko Ong