Death Toll Rising in Myanmar After Powerful Earthquake (Video)

In neighboring Thailand, at least seven people were killed and dozens were missing after a skyscraper under construction collapsed hundreds of miles away in Bangkok.

The appeal for international aid from Myanmar’s military spokesman, Gen. Zaw Min Tun, was highly unusual for the junta, which is under heavy sanctions by the United States, Britain and others. Humanitarian groups said they were having difficulty assessing the damage because electricity and communication lines were down.

The earthquake struck Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, around 12:50 p.m. local time. Bleeding victims were rushed to hospitals by ambulance, car and motorbike after the quake — the third of its magnitude to hit the region in the past century.

Buildings were left in ruins, and a doctor at Mandalay General Hospital said so many people had arrived for treatment that nurses had run out of cotton swabs and he had no place to stand. Dozens of patients at the hospital — the main medical facility in the city, which has more than a million people — were forced to flee to a nearby parking lot. Many were still hooked up to intravenous drips and oxygen tanks, some lying on cardboard or directly on the ground.

Outside the hospital, Daw Kyi Shwin, 45, was bleeding heavily. She said that her 3-year-old daughter had been killed when their house began to collapse as they were having lunch. “I tried to run to her,” she said, “but before I could, bricks fell on me too.”

Here’s what else to know:

• Humanitarian aid: Myanmar’s long isolation and its internal instability are likely to complicate the global humanitarian aid response despite the rare plea for outside help from the country’s military-dominated government. In a country ravaged by civil war, major logistical hurdles remain in getting the aid to the people who most need it.

• Limited information: Myanmar’s junta has repeatedly shut off the internet and cut access to social media to thwart dissent and prop up its rule. That has cut the country off from the world digitally, and details of the destruction in many parts of Myanmar were not immediately available. Bridges and several buildings in Myanmar have collapsed, including in Naypyidaw, the capital, The Global New Light of Myanmar, a state-owned newspaper, reported.

• Chaos in Thailand: In Bangkok, more than 600 miles from Mandalay, videos showed water surging from pools atop high-rise hotels and residential towers. Videos verified by The New York Times showed the collapse of a 30-story skyscraper that was under construction as workers and passers-by ran for safety. At least seven people were reported killed in the collapse, and 20 people were stuck in an elevator, an official said, and it was unclear if they were still alive.

• Active quake zone: Myanmar is in one of the world’s most seismically active regions. A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in eastern Myanmar killed more than 70 people and shattered hundreds of buildings in 2011. The shaking was felt as far away as Bangladesh, Vietnam and southern China, where state news media said an unspecified number of people had been injured in Ruili, near the Myanmar border.