Myanmar Earthquake Toll Surpasses 1,600 Dead Amid Search for Survivors

Earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand

Aid workers delivered the first shipments of help to Myanmar, but will have to cross a country buckled by the disaster and divided by civil war, arms dealers and drug syndicates.

Aid workers delivered the first shipments of help to Myanmar, but will have to cross a country buckled by the disaster and divided by civil war, arms dealers and drug syndicates.

Sui-Lee Wee and

Reporting from Bangkok and New York

The official death toll of the earthquake that shattered central Myanmar surpassed 1,600 people, the country’s military leaders said on Saturday, as desperate rescue workers raced to find survivors and began grappling with a monumental disaster in a nation already racked by civil war.

“There are at least a hundred people still trapped inside,” said Thaw Zin, a volunteer who was sitting in front of a destroyed condominium. “We are trying our best with what we have.”

The earthquake has raised questions about whether Myanmar’s military rulers can manage to stay in power, having already lost ground to rebels amid a bloody civil war that has left nearly 20 million of the country’s roughly 54 million people without enough food or shelter even before the quake, according to U.N. officials.

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