Myanmar quake toll tops 3,000

SAGAING:

The head of Myanmar's junta was due to discuss the response to his country's devastating earthquake at a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday after the death toll passed 3,000.

Min Aung Hlaing will join a BIMSTEC gathering -- representing the seven littoral nations of the Bay of Bengal -- where he will raise the emergency response to last Friday's 7.7-magnitude quake.

The junta chief arrived at Bangkok's plush Shangri-La hotel, the summit venue, amid tight security, AFP journalists saw.

Many nations have sent aid and teams of rescue workers to Myanmar since the quake but heavily damaged infrastructure and patchy communications -- as well as a rumbling civil war -- have hampered efforts.

Myanmar has been engulfed in a brutal multi-sided conflict since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing's military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Following reports of sporadic clashes even after Friday's quake, the junta joined its opponents on Wednesday in calling a temporary halt to hostilities to allow relief to be delivered.

UN chief Antonio Guterres, speaking in New York, called for the Myanmar truce to "quickly lead to a beginning of a serious political dialogue and the release of political prisoners."

AFP journalists saw hectic scenes on Thursday in the city of Sagaing -- less than 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the epicentre -- as hundreds of desperate people scrambled for emergency supplies distributed by civilian volunteers.

Roads leading to the city were packed with traffic, many of the vehicles part of aid convoys organised by civilian volunteers and adorned with banners saying where they had been sent from across Myanmar.

Destruction in Sagaing is widespread, with 80 percent of buildings damaged, half severely, UNDP resident representative for Myanmar Titon Mitra told AFP.

Food markets are unusable and hospitals are overwhelmed by patients and structurally unsound, he said, with patients being treated outdoors in heat of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

"We have seen children, pregnant women, injured people there. There's not enough medical supplies," he said.

"If you look at the overall impacted area, there's possibly three million-plus that may have been affected."