Myanmar quake toll passes 1,600 as people dig for survivors with bare hands

More than 1,600 people have died following the devastating earthquake in Myanmar, with locals in some areas telling the BBC they had been left to dig through rubble for survivors with their bare hands.

The quake has flattened much of Mandalay - the ancient capital and second-largest city which is home to about 1.5 million people.

An acute lack of equipment, patchy communication networks and wrecked roads and bridges have hampered the search.

Myanmar's military government or junta, which seized power in 2021, is also no longer in control of much of the country after a four-year civil war against rebel groups and an anti-coup resistance.

Although rescue efforts have been under way since Friday and international aid has begun to enter the country, help is yet to reach the worst-hit areas and ordinary people have been trying to dig survivors out by hand.

Widely shared footage shows two men moving rubble to pry out a young woman trapped between two concrete slabs.

The BBC has spoken to locals who said that people were screaming for help from under the debris.

Rescuers also pulled a woman alive from the wreckage of a 12-storey apartment block in Mandalay some 30 hours after it collapsed, but the Red Cross says more than 90 people may still be trapped there.

In a nearby township, authorities found the bodies of 12 preschool children and a teacher under a building housing a kindergarten.

Cracks and surface distortions to the main highway between the biggest city Yangon, the capital Nay Pyi Taw and Mandalay had caused severe transport disruptions, UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.

There were also shortages of medical supplies including trauma kits, blood bags, anaesthetics, essential medicines and tents for health workers, it said.

Elsewhere, other rescue workers have been listening out for signs of life. ''We can only rescue people when we hear them,'' one said.

Earlier on Saturday, a rescue team in the Sintkai township in Mandalay's Kyaukse district pulled out a number of people trapped in the debris of a private school. Six of them – five females and one male – had died by the time the rescue teams arrived. Among the victims were students, teachers and school staff.

A lack of equipment is greatly slowing down the rescues, a worker told BBC Burmese: "We are making do with the equipment we have. We have been trying for hours to pull out a girl trapped under the collapsed school."

Another worker in Mandalay told a BBC reporter in Yangon that communication had been near impossible.

"The main thing is that we don't have internet lines, we don't have phone lines, so it's very difficult to connect with each other. The rescue team has arrived. But we don't know where it will go, because the phone lines are down."

A Mandalay resident said people were doing their best in the chaotic circumstances.

"There is no coordination in the rescue efforts, no one to lead them, or tell them what to do. Locals have had to fend for themselves. If they find dead bodies in the debris, they don't even know where to send the bodies; hospitals are overwhelmed and unable to cope," the resident said.

The junta has put the number of damaged buildings in the Mandalay region, the epicentre of the earthquake, at more than 1,500. Power outages have exacerbated the situation, and according to officials restoring power could take days.

Mandalay airport is not functional as the runways were damaged during the earthquake. The military council said that it had been working to resume operations and a temporary hospital, medical relief camp and shelter have been set up there.

Less than 25km (15 miles) from Mandalay in Sagaing, the older of two bridges connecting the regions has completely collapsed and the newer one has developed cracks, cutting off access for rescue teams.

"Right now, there are not enough people even for emergency rescue. We can't pick up bodies, there are so many people trapped. We can't cross either bridge, so we are all trapped in the rubble. Please help emergency rescuers come and rescue us," a local resident told BBC Burmese.

The recently constructed capital Nay Pyi Taw, where the military junta is headquartered, has been hit by aftershocks and small tremors. The city has seen extensive damage with high numbers of casualties, collapsed buildings and buckled roads.

Even as the junta has made a rare international appeal for aid, it has continued air strikes and drone attacks against the armed groups it has been fighting.

BBC Burmese confirmed that seven people were killed in an air strike in Naungcho in northern Shan state. This strike took place around 15:30 local time, less than three hours after the quake struck.

Pro-democracy rebel groups fighting to remove the military from power have reported aerial bombings in Chang-U township in the central Sagaing region, the epicentre of the quake. There are also reports of airstrikes in regions near the Thai border.

The UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, urged the junta to cease bombing raids.

"The problem is that you still have military operations going on right now... Military strikes by the military junta," he told the BBC.

"I'm calling upon the junta to just stop, stop any of its military operations. This is completely outrageous and unacceptable."