Survivors pulled out of rubble

Cheng Wong and agencies

The death toll from the earthquake that hit Myanmar has risen to more than 2,000 as more bodies have been pulled from the rubble, the country's military-led government said.

The junta said yesterday the death toll has risen to 2,056, with more than 3,900 people injured and 270 still missing.

Three Chinese nationals are among the dead, China's state media said, along with two French people, according to the foreign ministry in Paris.

Chinese diplomats are assisting the families of the deceased with arrangements.

However, with communications down in much of Myanmar, the true scale of the disaster has yet to emerge and the death toll is expected to rise significantly.

At least 19 deaths have been confirmed hundreds of kilometers away in Thailand's capital Bangkok, where the force of the quake caused a 30-story tower block under construction to collapse.

The 7.7-magnitude quake hit at midday on Friday, causing widespread damage, including in the capital Naypyidaw and the second largest city, Mandalay.

Rescuers yesterday freed a woman from the rubble after 60 hours trapped under the collapsed Great Wall Hotel in the city of Mandalay after a five-hour operation by Chinese, Russian and local teams, according to a Chinese embassy Facebook post.

It said she was in stable condition early yesterday.

Three others were pulled out of the rubble in Mandalay.

In Thailand, scanning machines and sniffer dogs were deployed at the site of the collapsed building and rescuers were urgently working out how to access an area where signs of life had been detected, three days on from the quake.

The United Nations said it was rushing relief supplies to an estimated 23,000 survivors in central Myanmar.

The 51-member Hong Kong search and rescue team, equipped with professional gear and search dogs, is working in two disaster-stricken areas in Mandalay.

After arriving in Naypyitaw on Sunday, the team took a brief rest at the Myanmar National Centre for Disease Control and met with diplomats from the Chinese embassy.

The Security Bureau said that although the team initially planned to begin reconnaissance work in Naypyidaw, Myanmar authorities directed them to proceed to Mandalay. The team set off overnight but had to pause their journey due to a nighttime curfew on the roads. They arrived in the city yesterday morning to assist in the aftermath.

Post Crisis Counseling Network Hong Kong will deploy a psychological rescue team to Myanmar monthly from mid-May to offer free psychological assessments and treatment to disaster victims, with the initiative set to continue for a year.

Hong Kong Red Cross' Joyce Ching Tak-kwan noted about 70 percent of buildings in some areas in Myanmar were damaged and many people were forced to rest on mattresses in the streets due to a lack of shelters.