People look on as search and rescue operations continue in the aftermath of a strong earthquake. [Source: Reuters]

Rescuers freed a woman from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar, officials said on Monday, a glimmer of hope three days after a massive earthquake that killed around 2,000 as searchers in Myanmar and Thailand raced against time to find more survivors.

The woman was pulled from the rubble of the Great Wall Hotel in the city of Mandalay, according to a Chinese government post on Facebook.

Mandalay is near the epicentre of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on Friday that wreaked mass devastation in Myanmar and damage in neighbouring Thailand.

In Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, emergency crews on Monday resumed a desperate search for 76 people believed buried under the rubble of an under-construction skyscraper that collapsed.

After nearly three days, fears were growing that the rescuers would find more dead bodies, which could sharply raise Thailand’s death toll that stood at 18 on Sunday.

In Myanmar, state media said at least 1,700 people have been confirmed dead. The Wall Street Journal reported the death toll had reached 2,028 in Myanmar. Reuters could not immediately confirm the new death toll.

A rescue team carried a woman out of the rubble of the Great Wall Hotel in Mandalay nearly 60 hours after the quake hit, the Chinese embassy in Myanmar said in a Facebook post, adding she was reported to be in a stable condition. The United Nations said it was rushing relief supplies to estimated 23,000 quake-hit survivors in central Myanmar.

India, China and Thailand are among Myanmar’s neighbours that have sent relief materials and teams, along with aid and personnel from Malaysia, Singapore and Russia.

The United States pledged $2 million in aid “through Myanmar-based humanitarian assistance organizations”. It said in a statement that an emergency response team from USAID, which is undergoing massive cuts under the Trump administration, is deploying to Myanmar.

The quake devastation has piled more misery on Myanmar, already in chaos from a civil war that grew out of a nationwide uprising after a 2021 military coup ousted the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

One rebel group said the military was still conducting airstrikes on villages in the aftermath of the quake, and Singapore’s foreign minister called for an immediate ceasefire to help relief efforts. Critical infrastructure – including bridges, highways, airports and railways – across the country of 55 million lie damaged, slowing humanitarian efforts while the conflict that has battered the economy, displaced over 3.5 million people and debilitated the health system rages on.

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