The official death toll from the 7.7-magnitude powerful earthquake that struck central Myanmar on Friday has surpassed 1,600, the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing the country's military leaders.
As part of India's commitment to Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations, a specialised rescue team from the 50 (I) Para Brigade was swiftly deployed to Myanmar under Operation Brahma on Saturday after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the country on Friday.
Thai rescue teams used robotic mules on Saturday in front of JJ Mall Chatuchak, Thailand, where an under-construction building collapsed after an earthquake of 7.7 magnitude on the Richter scale hit Sagaing, Myanmar, yesterday.
First C130 landed in Naypyitaw. The NDRF team was received by Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Abhay Thakur and Maung Maung Lynn, Ambassador-at-large, in Myanmar Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the MEA stated.
He said that disaster relief material, humanitarian assistance, and search and rescue teams are being expeditiously dispatched to the affected areas as part of Operation Brahma.
The first tranche of 15 tonnes of relief material, including tents, blankets, sleeping bags, food packets, hygiene kits, generators, and essential medicines, landed in Yangon on Saturday.
The death toll from the earthquake that struck central Myanmar could exceed 10,000, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated according to their early modeling on Friday.
"Geographically we are at risk due to being surrounded by three lands with tectonic activities with the boundary of Bangladesh, it is about 100-150 kilometres. Even in north we have the Eurasian plate in Nepal, and we are standing in Indo-Australian plate, and on our eastern side in Myanm