Today's Edition
Yangon (AFP)
The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen above 3,300, state media said on Saturday, as the United Nations aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation.
The March 28 quake flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, according to new figures published by state media.
More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses.
A United Nations estimate suggests that more than three million people may have been affected by the 7.7-magnitude quake.
The UN's top aid official on Saturday met with victims in the central Myanmar city of Mandalay -- situated close to the epicentre and now grappling with severe damage across the city.
"The destruction is staggering," Tom Fletcher wrote in a post on X.
"The world must rally behind the people of Myanmar".
The new toll was announced after the country's military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing returned from a rare foreign trip to a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, where he met with leaders including the prime ministers of Thailand and India.
China, Russia and India were among the first countries to provide support, sending rescue teams to Myanmar to help locate survivors.
The United States has traditionally been at the forefront of international disaster relief, but President Donald Trump has dismantled the country's humanitarian aid agency.
Washington said on Friday it was adding $7 million on top of an earlier $2 million in assistance to Myanmar.
