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Myanmar quake toll passes 1,600 as people dig for survivors with bare hands
The number of people known to have died following the devastating earthquake in Myanmar has risen to more than 1,600, with people in some areas telling the BBC they had been left to dig through rubble for their loved ones with their bare hands.
An acute lack of equipment, patchy communication networks and wrecked roads and bridges were also hampering the search for survivors.
The quake has flattened much of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. There was applause when rescuers pulled a woman alive from the wreckage of a 12-storey apartment block some 30 hours after it collapsed, but the Red Cross says more than 90 people may still be trapped there.
In a nearby township, rescue workers found the bodies of 12 preschool children and a teacher under a building housing a kindergarten.
Cracks and surface distortions to the main highway between the biggest city Yangon, the capital Nay Pyi Taw and Mandalay had caused severe transport disruptions, UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.
There were also shortages of medical supplies including trauma kits, blood bags, anesthetics, essential medicines and tents for health workers, it said.
Although rescue teams have been at work since yesterday and international aid has begun to enter the country, help is yet to reach the worst-hit areas and ordinary people have been trying to dig survivors out by hand.
Widely shared footage shows two men moving rubble to pry out a young woman trapped between two concrete slabs.
The BBC has spoken to locals who said that people were screaming for help from under the debris.
Elsewhere, other rescue workers have been listening out for signs of life. ”We can only rescue people when we hear them,” one said.
Earlier on Saturday, a rescue team in the Sintkai township in Mandalay’s Kyaukse district pulled out a number of people trapped in the debris of a private school. Six of them – five females and one male – had died by the time the rescue teams arrived. Among the victims were students, teachers and school staff.
A lack of equipment is greatly slowing down the rescues, a worker told BBC Burmese: “We are making do with the equipment we have. We have been trying for hours to pull out a girl trapped under the collapsed school.”
Another worker in Mandalay told a BBC reporter in Yangon that communication had been near impossible.
“The main thing is that we don’t have internet lines, we don’t have phone lines, so it’s very difficult to connect with each other. The rescue team has arrived. But we don’t know where it will go, because the phone lines are down.”
A Mandalay resident said people were doing their best in the chaotic circumstances.
“There is no coordination in the rescue efforts, no one to lead them, or tell them what to do. Locals have had to fend for themselves. If they find dead bodies in the debris, they don’t even know where to send the bodies; hospitals are overwhelmed and unable to cope,” the resident said.
The junta has put the number of damaged buildings in the Mandalay region, the epicentre of the earthquake, at more than 1,500. Power outages have exacerbated the situation, and according to officials restoring power could take days.
Mandalay airport is not functional as the runways were damaged during the earthquake. The military council said that it had been working to resume operations and a temporary hospital, medical relief camp and shelter have been set up there.
Less than 25km (15 miles) from Mandalay in Sagaing, the older of two bridges connecting the regions has completely collapsed and the newer one has developed cracks, cutting off access for rescue teams.
“Right now, there are not enough people even for emergency rescue. We can’t pick up bodies, there are so many people trapped. We can’t cross either bridge, so we are all trapped in the rubble. Please help emergency rescuers come and rescue us,” a local resident told BBC Burmese.
The recently constructed capital Nay Pyi Taw, where the military junta is headquartered, has been hit by aftershocks and small tremors. The city has seen extensive damage with high numbers of casualties, collapsed buildings and buckled roads.
Meanwhile, even while the junta has made a rare international appeal for aid, it has continued air strikes and drone attacks against the ethnic armies and armed groups it has been fighting in the country’s four-year civil war.
BBC Burmese confirmed that seven people were killed in an air strike in Naungcho in northern Shan state. This strike took place around 15:30 local time, less than three hours after the quake struck.
Pro-democracy rebel groups fighting to remove the military from power have reported aerial bombings in Chang-U township in the central Sagaing region, the epicentre of the quake. There are also reports of airstrikes in regions near the Thai border.
The UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, urged the junta to cease bombing raids.
“The problem is that you still have military operations going on right now… Military strikes by the military junta,” he told the BBC.
“I’m calling upon the junta to just stop, stop any of its military operations. This is completely outrageous and unacceptable.”
[BBC]
Sunrisers Hyderabad [SRH] became the first team in IPL 2026 to successfully defend a total, and for that, they had to post 226 for 8, the highest score of the season so far. Even that did not look safe at one point, but in the end, Kolkata Knight Riders [KKR] fell short by 65 runs.
Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma set the platform for SRH by adding 82 in 5.4 overs. Head made 46 off 21 balls, and Abhishek 48 off 21. KKR did make a comeback in the middle overs, but Heinrich Klassen’s 52 off 35 deliveries ensured they picked up 51 in the last four overs.
Finn Allen, batting on the same strip where he had scored a blazing hundred against South Africa in the T20 World Cup semi-final, started the chase by smashing 24 runs off David Payne. But Harsh Dubey had him caught and bowled from the other end. Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 27-ball fifty steered KKR to 110 for 3 in ten overs, but his run-out soon after proved to be the turning point. Rinku Singh’s brief resistance was futile, and KKR were eventually all out for 161 in 16 overs.
Ajinkya Rahane, playing his 200th IPL match, opted to bowl after winning the toss. Vaibhav Arora started with three dots, beating Head’s outside edge on all three occasions. But that was the proverbial calm before the storm. Head pulled the last ball of the over for four before picking two more fours off Blessing Muzarabani in the next over.
Muzarabani was trying the short-ball ploy that had worked for Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Jacob Duffy against the same opposition in the tournament opener, but it backfired here. Abhishek rubbed it in by pulling yet another short ball from Muzarabani for a six.
After Head smashed two sixes and two fours in Vaibhav’s next over, Rahane turned to spin. Sunil Narine conceded only three runs from the fourth over, and even induced a miscue from Head, but it landed safely. However, Abhishek took Varun Chakravarthy apart from the other end, hitting two sixes and three fours in a 25-run over.
Kartik Tyagi ended the stand by dismissing Head, but not before the batter had smashed him for a four and a six. SRH finished the powerplay on 84 for 1.
Muzarabani pulled things back for KKR by dismissing Ishan Kishan and Abhishek in the space of three balls. Kishan was caught at deep cover, and Abhishek at deep square leg, where Varun dived forward to complete a low catch. The third umpire had multiple looks at it before deciding it in KKR’s favour.
In the next over, Anukul Roy had Aniket Verma caught at long-off to make it 118 for 4. After that, Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy decided to go into consolidation mode. As a result, only 37 runs came from overs 10 to 14.
Klaasen and Reddy picked up a four each off Narine in the 15th over, but Tyagi gave away only seven runs in the next. When Vaibhav conceded only three off the first five balls of the 17th over, it started looking like the final flourish might never come. But his final ball was in the slot for Reddy, who launched it over the bowler’s head for a six.
Klaasen then reverse-lapped Tyagi over deep third for a six, before Reddy hit him for back-to-back fours. Vaibhav hurt SRH by dismissing Reddy and Salil Arora off successive deliveries, but Klaasen, with the help of Dubey and Shivang Kumar, took them past 220.
Allen gave KKR the start they needed, with 25 runs coming off the first over. While Rahane was struggling and eventually fell for 8 off ten balls, Raghuvanshi didn’t let the scoring rate drop. He hit two sixes off Abhishek in the third over, and smashed back-to-back fours off Jaydev Unadkat in the fifth. After five overs, KKR were 67 for 2.
Cameron Green, though, was run out in the following over. As Raghuvanshi drove one back towards Eshan Malinga, the two batters set off, only to find the bowler had stopped the ball with his boot. Both Raghuvanshi and Green froze for a moment before deciding to keep running. Malinga picked the ball up and broke the stumps. Initially, it looked like Raghuvanshi, who was running towards the non-striker’s end, was run out. But the TV umpire found out the batters hadn’t crossed when the wicket was broken, and it was Green who was out.
Raghuvanshi and Rinku, though, kept the chase on track, and took KKR to 100 in nine overs, with SRH’s poor ground fielding also contributing towards it.
Soon after that, Reddy got rid of Roy and Rinku in back-to-back overs. Narine and Ramandeep Singh took KKR to 155 for 6 in the 15th over, before falling to Malinga’s slower balls. Unadkat then wrapped up the win with two wickets in two balls.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 226 for 8 in 20 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 52, Abhishek Sharma 48, Travis Head 46, Ishan Kishan 14, Nitish Kumar Reddy 39; Vaibhav Arora 2-47, Blessing Muzarabani 4-41, Kartik Tyagi 1-48, Anukul Roy 1-16) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 161 in 16 overs (Finn Allen 28, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 52, Rinku Singh 35, Ramandeep Singh 10, Sunil Narine 12; Harsh Dubey 1-17, Jaydev Unadkat 3-21, Eshan Malinga 2-14, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-17) by 65 runs
Eshan Malinga and Shivang Kumar celebrate after running out Angkrish Raghuvanshi [Cricinfo]
[Cricinfo]
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Heat Index at Caution Level in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district.
Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 02 April 2026, valid for 03 April 2026.
The Heat index, the temperature felt on human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district.
The Heat Index Forecast is calculated by using relative humidity and maximum temperature and this is the condition that is felt on your body. This is not the forecast of maximum temperature. It is generated by the Department of Meteorology for the next day period and prepared by using global numerical weather prediction model data.
Effect of the heat index on the human body is mentioned in the above table and it is prepared on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.
ACTION REQUIRED
Job sites: Stay hydrated and takes breaks in the shade as often as possible.
Indoors: Check up on the elderly and the sick.
Vehicles: Never leave children unattended.
Outdoors: Limit strenuous outdoor activities, find shade and stay hydrated.
Dress: Wear lightweight and white or light-colored clothing.
Note:
In addition, please refer to advisories issued by the Disaster Preparedness & Response Division, Ministry of Health in this regard as well. For further clarifications please contact 011-7446491.
Former Matara District Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister Mahinda Wijesekara has passed away this morning (02) at the age of 83 family sources have announced.
Mahinda Wijesekara served as a Member of Parliament for the Matara district for over two decades (1989 to 2010), representing the People’s Alliance, the United National Party and the United People’s Freedom Alliance.
He held several ministerial portfolios, including Minister of Postal and Telecommunication Services in 2008, Minister of Forestry and Envioronment 1999-2001, Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Resources from 2001 to 2004 and Minister of Special Projects 2007-2008
He was in poor health following injuries sustained in the 2009 bomb attack by the LTTE terrorists in Godapitiya, Matara.
He was the father of former Minister Kanchana Wijesekara.
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Heat Index at Caution Level in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district.
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