The number of people killed in Myanmar following a powerful earthquake has risen to 1,644, with 3,408 others injured, according to local reports.

A further 139 people are also reportedly missing across the country.

It comes as dramatic footage shows the moment a building several stories high collapsed into rubble in the city of Mandalay – near to the earthquake’s epicentre.

Survivors in the city dug with their bare hands in a desperate attempt to find trapped people.

It struck at around 12.50pm local time (6.20am UK time) on Friday at a shallow depth of six miles (9.6km).

The quake’s epicentre was about 10 miles from Mandalay.

There were also aftershocks, with one measuring a strong 6.4 magnitude 12 minutes later.

King Charles sent a message of condolence.

“I know that the people of Myanmar continue to endure so much hardship and tragedy in your lives, and I have long admired your extraordinary resilience and spirit,” he said in a statement.

“At this most difficult and heartbreaking of times, my wife and I send our deepest possible sympathy to all those who have suffered the profound tragedy of losing their loved ones, their homes and their precious livelihoods.”

The UK government has announced a package of £10m to support the people of Myanmar in the aftermath of the quake.

The first major disaster to suffer the brunt of Trump’s aid cuts

Dominic Waghorn

International affairs editor

@DominicWaghorn

This will be the first natural disaster to happen after President Donald Trump shut down America’s international aid agency with potentially devastating consequences.

The impact in the aftermath of this earthquake is likely to be severe. Trump’s decision to shut down the US Agency for International Development was already reported to have decimated US aid operations in Myanmar. Its global impact is hard to overstate. American aid had provided 40% of developmental aid worldwide.

Yesterday, Trump promised Myanmar aid for the earthquake. In reality, his administration has fired most of the people most experienced at organising that help and shut down the means to provide it.

The last of its staff were ironically only let go yesterday, even as the president was making lofty promises to help.

The US State Department says it has maintained a team of experts in the country. But former USAID officials say the system is now ‘in shambles’ without the wherewithal to conduct search and rescue or transfer aid.

Read the full story here.

China‘s President Xi Jinping also sent his condolences to Myanmar’s leader Min Aung Hlaing after the earthquake, and, according to the Chinese embassy in Myanmar, they have spoken on the phone.

A Chinese rescue team arrived in Yangon, Myanmar’s former capital, early on Saturday, while Russia and the US have also offered to provide humanitarian assistance and relief.

Twelve Chinese nationals are among the injured, according to Chinese state media.

Neighbouring Thailand was also affected by the quake, leaving at least seven people dead, eight injured, and 47 missing.

Buildings in five of Myanmar‘s cities and towns collapsed, along with a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway, state media reported. A dam also burst.

The control tower at Nay Pyi Taw airport, which serves the capital Naypyidaw, collapsed, meaning runways cannot be used.

Recalling the moment they left their home in Mandalay, one resident said they “ran out of the house as everything started shaking”.

They said they “witnessed a five-storey building collapse in front of [their] eyes”, adding, “everyone in my town is out on the road and no one dares to go back inside buildings”.

The natural disaster – the largest earthquake in this region in nearly 80 years – comes as the country is in the grip of a civil war.

Search efforts continued on Saturday morning in Bangkok as the city’s governor, Chadchart Sittipunt, said people were believed to be alive in the wreckage at three construction sites, including one where a partially built high-rise collapsed.

Most of the city’s metro and light rail resumed normal operation on Saturday morning, according to their operators.

Major General Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for the military government, told MRTV that blood was in high demand in earthquake-hit areas, as he urged donors to contact hospitals as soon as possible.

United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said UN staff were working to gather information on the number of people impacted by the earthquake and the scope of the humanitarian needs.

Read more:
Bangkok felt like a city caught off guard
Eyewitnesses describe earthquake hitting Myanmar and Bangkok

The ruling military junta said a state of emergency has been declared in Sagaing Region, Mandalay Region, Magway Region and northeastern Shan State, Nay Pyi Taw Council Area, and Bago Region.

“The government has ordered a rapid investigation of the damage in these areas,” the junta added in a statement.

“We will carry out relief and relief operations promptly. We will also work to provide necessary disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.”

The Red Cross has said its attempts to reach Mandalay and Sagaing regions and the southern Shan state are made more challenging by downed power lines.

China will provide 100 million yuan (£10.63m) worth of aid to Myanmar, including tents, blankets, emergency medical kits, food and water.

The first batch is set to arrive on 31 March, according to the Chinese embassy’s Facebook page.

This will be the first natural disaster to happen after President Donald Trump shut down America’s international aid agency with potentially devastating consequences.

The impact in the aftermath of this earthquake is likely to be severe. Trump’s decision to shut down the US Agency for International Development was already reported to have decimated US aid operations in Myanmar. Its global impact is hard to overstate. American aid had provided 40% of developmental aid worldwide.

Yesterday, Trump promised Myanmar aid for the earthquake. In reality, his administration has fired most of the people most experienced at organising that help and shut down the means to provide it.

The last of its staff were ironically only let go yesterday even as the president was making lofty promises to help.

Latest updates on earthquake

The US State Department says it has maintained a team of experts in the country. But former USAID officials say the system is now ‘in shambles’ without the wherewithal to conduct search and rescue or transfer aid.

As they count the cost of this massive earthquake, the people of Myanmar will be hoping, though, for a silver lining, that the disaster may hasten the fall of their despised dictator.

The catastrophe comes at a very bad time for General Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power in a coup four years ago.

The Myanmar junta is losing a civil war against an array of opposition forces, ceding territory now largely kettled into the country’s big cities. And some of its worst damage has been done in its urban strongholds.

Read more:
More than 1,000 killed in Myanmar earthquake
Moment building collapses in Bangkok earthquake

The disaster is so bad that Hlaing has broken his government’s self-imposed isolation to appeal for help from the outside world. But the country’s inaccessibility will remain a huge obstacle to aid efforts.

Myanmar is a deeply superstitious country. The generals who have ruled it since the end of colonial rule have consulted astrologers and use talismanic objects and animals, including white elephants, to protect their grip on power.

But earthquakes are thought to portend great change in Myanmar and sometimes the fall of leaders. That in itself may accelerate the toppling of its hated junta.

It remains powerful, supplied by ally China with advanced weaponry. It has used fighter jets to wreak havoc and carnage on opponents and civilians as the civil war has intensified.

But its enemies are gaining strength too, improvising with drones and other tactics to maintain momentum against a regime that lost all legitimacy. They will be encouraged in the belief that this disaster will bring closer their day of victory.

In Bangkok, at the site where a mass of rubble sits, rescue workers have the machinery they need and the manpower to try and pull people out of the high-rise building that collapsed.

In neighbouring Myanmar, they certainly don’t have that kind of capacity and they’re confronting a much larger death toll – one that is rising.

And yet, progress at the site where an unfinished building was instantly destroyed has been painfully slow.

All day, we watched as cranes tried to shift the concrete and steel around to make way for rescuers to enter.

Tide Banluerit, a volunteer rescuer, emerged looking bewildered after 11 hours inside.

“I looked at the structure and the foundation looked strong,'” he said. “But it’s not meant to collapse like dominoes and stack like pancakes in that way.”

But there is still hope.

Myanmar earthquake: Follow live updates

The Thai police told us overnight that they had seen signs of life on thermal imaging systems.

Perhaps as many as 15 people, they believed.

Families of the missing were holding on to those nuggets of information – holding vigil at a dusty area now full of makeshift water and footstalls, laid on to support the round-the-clock rescue efforts.

Hovering outside a white tent, Munyapa Thongkorn was waiting for news.

Wiping away tears as she clutched onto her husband, she told me her 17-year-old daughter Naiyana was trapped.

She was working as an electrician inside the multi-storey building when the quake hit.

Read more:
Myanmar quake victims suffer brunt of Trump cuts
Eyewitnesses describe quake hitting Myanmar and Bangkok

“They told me she’s still inside, still stuck,” she says. “I was only just talking to my friends about her before the earthquake. But I haven’t been able to reach her since.”

A rescuer told me he thought it could be 72 hours before they could properly get inside the mangled structure.

That’s a long time when every second counts.

In Myanmar, people are using their own hands to pull their neighbours from the rubble.

There have been some miraculous escapes.

One video from Mandalay shows a young woman emerging from the smallest of gaps – a flash of a hand and then a smile – confirmation after a long rescue that she had survived against all the odds.

China, Russia, and India have sent teams into the country now after the ruling military junta asked for international support – a rare move.

They have their work cut out.

Information in the isolated country has been slow to emerge – the junta restricting access to the internet.

But videos are starting to show the scale of destruction and the death toll, at over 1,600 as of Saturday evening, is expected to rise.

The US Geological Survey says it could rise as high as 10,000.

The infrastructure has long been under pressure from a bloody civil war in Myanmar.

It could easily be totally overwhelmed by this disaster.

Hospitals are among the buildings hit.

Over the next 48 hours, we will find out a bit more about just how grave the situation is on the ground.

Traversing the roads, let alone the whim of the ruling junta, is deeply challenging.

But even the military concedes, this time, it needs help and fast.