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Mandalay was the ‘city of gold’ – now it reeks of death

Published

8 months ago

2025/04/1

Priyan

Friday's earthquake also affected Thailand and China, but its impact has been especially devastating in Myanmar [BBC]

Mandalay used to be known as the city of gold, dotted by glittering pagodas and Buddhist burial mounds, but the air in Myanmar’s former royal capital now reeks of dead bodies.

So many corpses have piled up since a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck last Friday close to Mandalay, that they have had to be “cremated in stacks”, one resident says.

The death toll from the quake and a series of aftershocks has climbed past 2,700, with 4,521 injured and hundreds still missing, Myanmar’s military chief said. Those figures are expected to rise.

Residents in the country’s second most populous city say they have spent sleepless nights wandering the streets in despair as food and water supplies dwindle.

The Mandalay resident who spoke of bodies being “cremated in stacks” lost her aunt in the quake.

“But her body was only pulled out of the rubble two days later, on 30 March,” said the 23-year-old student who wanted only to be known as J.

Poor infrastructure and a patchwork of civil conflicts are severely hampering the relief effort in Myanmar, where the military has a history of suppressing the scale of national disasters. The death toll is expected to keep rising as rescuers gain access to more collapsed buildings and cut-off districts.

J, who lives in Mandalay’s Mahaaungmyay district, has felt “dizzy from being deprived of sleep”, she said.

Many residents have been living out of tents – or nothing – along the streets, fearing that what’s left of their homes will not hold up against the aftershocks.

“I have seen many people, myself included, crouching over and crying out loud on the streets,” J said.

But survivors are still being found in the city. The fire service said it had rescued 403 people in Mandalay in the past four days, and recovered 259 bodies. The true number of casualties is thought to be much higher than the official version.

In a televised speech on Tuesday, military chief Min Aung Hlaing said the death toll may exceed 3,000, but the US Geological Survey said on Friday “a death toll over 10,000 is a strong possibility” based on the location and size of the quake.

Map of Myanmar earthquake on 28 March 2025

Young children have been especially traumatised in the disaster.

A local pastor told the BBC his eight-year-old son had burst into tears all of a sudden several times in the last few days, after witnessing parts of his neighbourhood buried under rubble in an instant. “He was in the bedroom upstairs when the earthquake struck, and my wife was attending to his younger sister, so some debris had fallen onto him,” says Ruate, who only gave his first name. “Yesterday we saw bodies being brought out of collapsed buildings in our neighbourhood,” said Ruate, who lives in the Pyigyitagon area.

“It’s very sobering. Myanmar has been hit by so many disasters, some natural, some human made. Everyone’s just gotten so tired. We are feeling hopeless and helpless.”

EPA Chinese rescuers search for earthquake victims at the collapsed Sky Villa in Mandalay, Myanmar, 31 March 2025

A monk who lives near the Sky Villa condominium, one of the worst-hit buildings reduced from 12 to six storeys by the earthquake, told the BBC that while some people had been pulled out alive, “only dead bodies have been recovered” in the past 24 hours. “I hope this will be over soon. There are many bodies still inside, I think more than a hundred,” he said.

Crematoriums close to Mandalay have been overwhelmed, while authorities have been running out of body bags, among other supplies, including food and drinking water.

Around the city, the remains of crushed pagodas and golden spires line the streets. While Mandalay used to be a major centre for the production of gold leaf and a popular tourist destination, poverty in the city has soared in recent years, as with elsewhere in Myanmar (formerly called Burma).

BBC Burmese A group of residents gather along the side of a road as three monks pray over them — *Survivors are living off dwindling supplies of food and water [BBC]*

Last week’s earthquake also affected Thailand and China, but itsnimpact has been especially devastating in Myanmar, which has been ravaged by a bloody civil war, a crippled economy and widespread disillusionment since the military took power in a coup in 2021.

On Tuesday, Myanmar held a minute of silence to remember victims, part of a week of national mourning. The junta called for flags to fly at half mast, media broadcasts to be halted and asked people to pay their respects.

Even before the quake, more than 3.5 million people had been displaced within the country.

Thousands more, nany of them young people, have fled abroad to avoid forced conscription – this means there are fewer people to help with relief work, and the subsequent rebuilding of the country.

Russia and China, which have helped prop up Myanmar’s military regime, are among countries that have sent aid and specialist support.

But relief has been slow, J said.

“The rescue teams have been working non-stop for four days and I think they are a little tired. They need some rest as well.

“But because the damage has been so extensive, we have limited resources here, it is simply hard for the relief workers to manage such massive destruction efficiently,” she said.

Getty Images Mahamuni Pagoda in Mandalay, Myanmar — *Mandalay used to be known as the city of gold, dotted by glittering Buddhist burial mounds and pagodas [BBC]*

While the junta had said that all assistance is welcome, some humanitarian workers have reported challenges accessing quake-stricken areas.

Local media in Sagaing, the earthquake’s epicentre, have reported restrictions imposed by military authorities that require organisations to submit lists of volunteers and items that they want to bring into the area.

Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have urged the junta to allow aid workers immediate access to these areas.

“Myanmar’s military junta still invokes fear, even in the wake of a horrific natural disaster that killed and injured thousands,” said Bryony Lau, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director.

“The junta needs to break from its appalling past practice and ensure that humanitarian aid quickly reaches those whose lives are at risk in earthquake-affected areas,” she said.

The junta has also drawn criticism for continuing to open fire on villages even as the country reels from the disaster.

[BBC]

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Death toll 635 as at 06:00 AM today [09]

Published

7 mins ago

2025/12/9

Priyan

The Situation Report issued by the Disaster Management Center at 06:00 AM today [09th December] confirms that 635 persons have died due to floods and landslides that took place in the country within the past two weeks. The number of persons that are missing is 192.

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Critical moment to ramp up support for Ukraine, European allies say

Published

2 hours ago

2025/12/9

Priyan

[pic BBC]

European leaders have said “now is a critical moment” to ramp up support for Ukraine and put pressure on Russia to bring an end to the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in London on Monday to discuss the latest version of a peace plan, drafted between Ukrainian and US officials last week.

The European leaders said more work was needed to obtain security guarantees for Ukraine, as the US puts pressure on Kyiv to agree a swift deal with Russia.

Zelensky, who travelled on to Brussels to meet Nato officials, said that Ukraine would share a revised plan with the US on Tuesday.

Last week, Ukrainian officials spent three days with the US negotiating team in Florida pushing for changes to a US-backed peace proposal which has been widely considered favourable to Russia.

Answering questions from journalists after Monday’s meeting in London, Zelensky said that the “most certainly anti-Ukrainian points have been removed” from the initial deal proposed in November.

But the Ukrainian president acknowledged that there were some outstanding concerns about ceding territory and a compromise had “not yet been found there”.

The US has proposed that Ukraine pulls its forces entirely out of eastern regions which Russia has attempted to take by force, but has been unable to capture in full. In return, the US says Russia would withdraw elsewhere and there would be a cessation of fighting.

But this is an unpalatable option for Zelensky, who refuses to reward Moscow for its aggression and who has repeatedly warned that Russia would use any foothold in the eastern regions to launch future assaults on Ukraine.

“Americans are inclined, in principle, to finding a compromise,” Zelensky said on Monday.

He added that the issue of security guarantees – which Ukraine wants to ensure Russia would be deterred from carrying out future attacks in the event of a peace deal – had yet to be resolved.

A spokesperson for the UK prime minister’s office said: “The leaders all agreed that now is a critical moment and that we must continue to ramp up support to Ukraine and economic pressure on Putin to bring an end to this barbaric war.

“The leaders discussed the importance of the US-led peace talks for European security and supported the progress made,” the statement said.

Leaders also “underscored the need for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, which includes robust security guarantees”, it added.

Ahead of the talks he hosted at Downing Street, Starmer said there needed to be “hard-edged security guarantees” in a peace deal for Ukraine.

Merz stated he was “sceptical” about some of the details of the potential plan coming from the US side. “But we have to talk about it. That’s why we are here,” he added.

Following the meeting, France said work would be “intensified” to provide security guarantees for Ukraine.

There is nervousness in Kyiv and across Europe that the US could end its support of Ukraine over frustration with the slow progress of negotiations. “We can’t manage without Americans, we can’t manage without Europe and that is why we need to make some important decisions,” Zelensky said in London.

Although the White House has been pushing Kyiv and Moscow to swiftly agree to a multi-point plan to end the war, there has been little sign of a breakthrough.

A five-hour meeting between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week failed to yield tangible results.

Those talks were followed by three days of discussions between Zelensky’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov and his US counterparts in Miami, which resulted in vague but positive statements of “progress” from both sides.

However, on Sunday Trump accused Zelensky of not having read the draft of the revised deal.

“I’m a little disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal,” he said, while insisting Russia’s Vladimir Putin was “fine with it”.

Almost simultaneously, Zelensky stated that he expected to be briefed on the negotiations by Umerov either in London or Brussels on Monday. “Some issues can only be discussed in person,” he said.

The talks in London were the latest attempt by Ukraine’s European allies to carve out a role in the US-led efforts to end the war, which they fear will undercut the long-term interests of the continent in favour of a quick resolution.

Despite significant economic pressure and sustained battlefield losses, the Kremlin has shown little sign that it is willing to compromise on its key demands, including ruling out any future path to Ukraine joining the Nato military alliance.

Last week, Putin also restated his willingness to continue fighting until his forces take full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, 85% of which is currently occupied by the Russian army.

Reuters A serviceman with a Russian flag on his uniform stands guard near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. — *The fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (pictured in August 2022) is a sticking point in negotiations to end the war, a US official said [BBC]*

As talks in the US and Europe continue, so does the war.

Between Sunday and Monday a total of 10 people were killed and 47 were injured as Russian forces attacked nine regions using drones, glide bombs and missiles.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Since then, thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed or injured, with Ukraine’s cities continuing to come under fire on an near nightly basis.

[BBC]

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Northern Japan hit by M7.5 earthquake, tsunami advisories lifted

Published

2 hours ago

2025/12/9

Priyan

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck northern Japan on Monday. Tsunami advisories have been lifted for the Pacific coastline in northern Japan. But officials have issued an alert for a potential megaquake in northern Japan.

Strong tremors felt across the region

The earthquake struck off the eastern coast of Aomori Prefecture at 11:15 p.m. on Monday.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has downgraded the magnitude of the quake centered off the Pacific coast in Aomori Prefecture to 7.5 from 7.6.

The depth has also been adjusted to 54 kilometers, from an initial estimate of 50 kilometers.

Tremors with an intensity of upper 6 on the Japanese intensity scale of 0 to 7 were observed in the city of Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture.

As of 1:00 a.m., six people in Aomori have been injured by either falling down or getting hit by falling objects at their homes.

Tsunami advisories lifted

Authorities had issued a tsunami warning for Iwate Prefecture and parts of Hokkaido and Aomori.

At Kuji Port in Iwate, a tsunami measuring 70 centimeters was observed. In Hokkaido, a 50-centimeter tsunami was seen in Urakawa Town and a 40-centimeter tsunami was observed at Mutsuogawara Port.

The Japan Meteorological Agency says: it is the first time the agency has issued a tsunami warning since July, when a powerful quake off Kamchatka, Russia, prompted it to issue one for Japan’s Pacific coastal areas.

Over 3 hours later, authorities downgraded the tsunami warning to advisories. And they lifted all tsunami advisories for the Pacific coastline of northern Japan at 6:20 a.m. on Tuesday.

‘Long-period ground motions’ recorded

According to authorities, long-period ground motions were recorded during the Monday earthquake.

The motions are slow, large-amplitude seismic waves with frequencies of 2 seconds or longer that occur during a large earthquake. Such motions are known to have a significant impact on high-rise buildings.

Strong long-period motions, classified class-3, the second highest in the 4-level scale were observed in the village of Rokkasho in Aomori Prefecture. Such class-3 waves are strong enough to make it difficult for people in a high-rise building to stand up.

‘An alert for a potential mega quake’ issued

Officials at Japan’s Meteorological Agency have issued an alert for a potential mega quake following Monday’s quake.

A mega quake could trigger tsunami along Japan’s Pacific coast from Hokkaido to Chiba Prefecture.

Officials are urging people to check evacuation routes, prepare emergency kits, secure home furniture and confirm backup food, water and portable toilets.

People along the Pacific coast in those areas should remain on the alert during the next week, even though an evacuation recommendation will not be issued.

The alert is the first since this category of warning was started in 2022.

Morikubo Tsukasa, Cabinet Office official for disaster preparedness, has held a news conference over a potential mega quake.

Morikubo: Based on the statistics of earthquakes that have occurred around the world so far, there is a possibility that a large-scale earthquake with a magnitude of 8 or higher could occur as a follow-up earthquake along the Japan Trench and the Chishima Trench off Hokkaido. It is unclear whether a large-scale earthquake will occur. But everyone should heed the call to take precaution to protect their own lives.

Residents ordered to evacuate

After tsunami warnings were issued, some municipalities in Hokkaido, and the Tohoku region issued evacuation orders to residents.

Traffic disrupted on Monday

East Japan Railway Company says that as of Tuesday, outbound trains on the Tohoku Shinkansen have been suspended between Fukushima and Shin-Aomori stations due to the earthquake. The company says three trains stopped in this section.

The company says that it is checking for any damage to railway tracks and that it remains unclear when services will resume.

The Morioka branch of East Japan Railway says that as of midnight on Tuesday, services on the Tohoku Main Line were suspended in Iwate Prefecture.

It says two trains made emergency stops. It remains unclear when services will resume. There are no reports of injuries.

As for Hokkaido, the operator of its busiest airport, New Chitose Airport near Sapporo, says that as of 11:40 p.m. on Monday, it was checking whether there are any abnormalities on two runways.

Highways have been affected. East Nippon Expressway Company says that as of 11:45 p.m. on Monday, traffic was completely stopped between the Shiraoi and Shinchitose Airport Interchanges and between the Tomakomai Higashi and Numanohata Nishi Interchanges.

Major traffic disorder unlikely on Tuesday

East Japan Railway Company says there has been no impact on its bullet train and regular train services after authorities issued the alert for potential megaquake following magnitude-7 or over quakes related to Monday’s quake. The operator, however, warns that delays or cancellations are still possible if damage to infrastructure is confirmed.

All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines say they plan to operate as usual starting Tuesday.

According to Cabinet Office guidelines, no restrictions will be placed on railways, airports and roads, even after such an alert is issued. The authorities are supposed to provide the public with information about locations they consider being vulnerable to a possible major quake, as well as evacuation sites.

In August 2024, authorities issued a Nankai Trough megaquake advisory after a powerful earthquake struck in southern Japan. The operator of the Tokaido Shinkansen was forced to slow down its bullet trains in some sections over the ensuing one-week period.

Power Companies: No abnormalities at nuclear plants

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it has confirmed that there are no abnormalities at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear plants.

The company says it halted the release of treated and diluted water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant at 11:42 pm on Monday, as per predetermined procedures.

The facility suffered a triple meltdown during the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The water used to cool molten fuel has been mixing with rain and groundwater.

That has been treated to remove most radioactive substances, except tritium. It’s then diluted, reducing levels of tritium to well below the World Health Organization’s guidance for drinking water, before it is released into the ocean.

TEPCO also ordered some employees at the facility to evacuate. There have been no reports so far of injuries at the nuclear power plant.

Tohoku Electric Power Company says no abnormalities have been detected at the Higashidori nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture and the Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture.

Hokkaido Electric Power Company says no problems have been found at the Tomari nuclear power plant in the prefecture.

Government bracing for damages

The Japanese government set up a task force at the crisis management center in the prime minister’s office at 11:16 p.m. on Monday in response to the earthquake.

Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae entered the prime minister’s office shortly after 11:50 p.m.

She instructed the government to immediately provide information on any tsunami and evacuation orders to the people in an appropriate manner, take thorough measures to prevent harm, such as evacuating residents, and get a grasp of the extent of damage as soon as possible.

Takaichi: The central government will work closely with local governments and make the utmost effort to carry out measures, such as emergency response, including rescue for the affected people.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara Minoru held a news conference on Tuesday. Kihara said the government continues to assess the extent of the damage.

He added that the government is devoting all its efforts to disaster prevention measures, with rescue and relief efforts as its top priority, led by the police, fire departments, Self-Defense Forces, and Japan Coast Guard.

Expert view on the quake

Sakai Shinichi, professor at the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo, says: If this was a shallow earthquake centered in the sea, there is a high possibility that a tsunami has already occurred. People should stay away from the coast. It is important to evacuate and to take measures to stay warm.

Sakai says: The epicenter may be north of the epicenter area of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. This time, the earthquake is believed to have occurred at the plate boundary, so I think it was a slightly larger earthquake. The magnitude could be revised in the future.

[NHK]