Myanmar Declares Week Of Mourning As Quake Toll Passes 2,000

Myanmar Declares Week Of Mourning As Quake Toll Passes 2,000

Myanmar declared a week of national mourning on Monday over the country’s devastating earthquake, as the death toll passed 2,000 and hopes faded of finding more survivors in the rubble of ruined buildings.

National flags will fly at half-mast until April 6 “in sympathy for the loss of life and damages” from Friday’s massive quake, the ruling junta said in a statement.

The junta also announced a minute’s silence on Tuesday, to begin at 12:51:02 pm (0621 GMT) — the precise time the 7.7-magnitude quake struck.

People should stop where they are to pay tribute to the victims, the junta said, while media should halt broadcasting and show mourning symbols, and prayers will be offered at temples and pagodas.

The announcement came as the tempo and urgency of rescue efforts wound down in Mandalay, one of the worst-affected cities and the country’s second-largest, with more than 1.7 million inhabitants.

“The situation is so dire that it’s hard to express what is happening,” said Aung Myint Hussein, chief administrator of Mandalay’s Sajja North mosque.

“The situation is so dire that it’s hard to express what is happening,” said Aung Myint Hussein, chief administrator of Mandalay’s Sajja North mosque.

People prepared to camp out in the streets across Mandalay for a fourth successive night, either unable to return to ruined homes or nervous about the repeated aftershocks that rattled the city over the weekend.

Some have tents but many, including young children, have been bedding down on blankets in the middle of roads, trying to keep as far from buildings as possible for fear of falling masonry.

The junta said Monday that 2,056 have now been confirmed, with more than 3,900 people injured and 270 still missing, but the toll is expected to rise significantly.

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

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