The number of people killed in Myanmar following Friday’s powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake could top 10,000, experts say.

The current death toll stands at 1,700, with 3,400 others injured and 300 missing, according to pro-junta Telegram channels, citing the military rulers.

But the US Geological Service’s predictive modelling estimates the fatality figure will increase in the thousands and could reach 10,000. It also suggests financial losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output.

Myanmar‘s earthquake was one of the country’s strongest in a century, its military government said.

While emergency rescue teams have started trickling into the area hardest hit by the quake, efforts have been hindered by damaged roads, downed bridges, poor communications and the challenges of operating in a country in the middle of a civil war.

Many areas still have not been reached.

The earthquake struck at around 12.50pm local time (6.20am UK time) on Friday near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, at a shallow depth of six miles.

Most rescues occur within the first 24 hours after a disaster, with the chances of survival diminishing as each day passes.

Neighbouring Thailand was also shaken, such as in the capital Bangkok where 18 people were killed, including 11 who died when an under-construction skyscraper collapsed. At least 76 people are missing and believed to be trapped under the debris.

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

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An initial report on earthquake relief efforts issued on Saturday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted the severe damage or destruction of many health facilities in Myanmar.

And it warned that a “severe shortage of medical supplies is hampering response efforts, including trauma kits, blood bags, anaesthetics, assistive devices, essential medicines, and tents for health workers”.

India, China and Thailand are among the neighbours that have sent relief materials and teams, along with aid and personnel.

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

Rescue efforts in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, are being complicated by the bloody civil war disrupting much of the country, including in quake-affected areas.

In 2001, the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, which in turn sparked armed resistance.

Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places are dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach.

More than three million people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.

The military government has been fighting long-established militias and newly formed pro-democracy People’s Defence Forces, and has heavily restricted much-needed aid efforts to the population already displaced by war even before the earthquake.

On Saturday, Myanmar’s opposition shadow National Unity Government, to which the PDF militias are loyal, announced a unilateral partial ceasefire to facilitate earthquake relief efforts.

The military did not immediately comment on the announcement and it continued airstrikes even after the earthquake.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance, a group of three of Myanmar’s most powerful and well-armed militias that launched a combined offensive in October 2023 which broke a strategic stalemate with the military regime, didn’t mention a ceasefire in a statement on Saturday.

But it said it was ready to help.

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.

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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.

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“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.

Not one of 134 Irish politicians who replied to a Sky News survey would support Conor McGregor’s ambition to become the country’s president.

Comments ranged from “not a hope in hell” to “I could not think of anyone more unfit” and “I would genuinely rather we didn’t have a president at all”.

The former MMA champion, who is appealing a civil case in which a jury found that he raped a woman, needs significant backing before he would be allowed to stand.

McGregor used a St Patrick’s Day meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office to further his aim to run in the election, which must be held by November.

Days later he formally announced on social media he would seek election and stand on an anti-immigration platform.

Candidates must garner the support of 20 Oireachtas (parliament) members, or the backing of four of Ireland’s local authorities in order to stand.

There are 234 Oireachtas members: 174 TDs or members of the lower house, the Dail, and 60 senators.

Sky News asked each one if they would give McGregor a nomination. A total of 104 TDs and 30 senators replied.

Every one of the 134 politicians said they would not support McGregor running. None chose the “maybe” option.

Read more: Why McGregor has ‘close to zero chance’ of becoming Ireland’s next president

Sky News has approached McGregor’s representative for comment on our findings. None has yet been received.

If McGregor chooses to pursue the council route to a nomination, he may not find it much easier, according to Gary Murphy, professor of politics at Dublin City University.

“The difficulty there is they are also dominated by the political parties. And so I think he would find this extremely difficult to actually get on the ballot.

“Now there is a big independent vote in Ireland, and maybe McGregor is targeting that, but the problem with that independent vote here in Ireland is that it’s very left wing and he’s not.”

McGregor is currently appealing the result of a civil case in which a Dublin jury found he had raped a woman, Nikita Hand, in 2018 and ordered him to pay her damages. He also faces a civil case in Florida, where a woman claims he sexually assaulted her at a basketball game in Miami in 2023. His legal team says the allegation is “false”.