More than 2,000 people have died in Myanmar following Friday's powerful earthquake, the country's military leadership says, as it declares a week of national mourning
The UN has made an urgent appeal for $8m (ÂŁ6.2m), as aid groups warn of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country, with hospitals damaged and overwhelmed - the BBC has been told the smell of dead bodies is permeating the streets
BBC Burmese's Htet Naing Zhaw has visited a preschool in Kyaukse, where school bags, books and learning materials lay scattered among the rubble
Myanmar's military leaders are still carrying out air strikes against an armed resistance they have been fighting for four years, reports BBC's Rebecca Henschke
In neighbouring Thailand, 20 people are known to have died, and today thousands have been evacuated from cracked buildings in Bangkok
Rescue efforts continue for 74 construction workers trapped under the rubble of a collapsed high-rise building in the capital - but there has been no sign of life in the wreckage for hours, the city's deputy governor says
'Nothing is left' - Myanmar resident reels from earthquake
Thanks for joining us as we continue our live coverage of what's happening in Myanmar and Thailand.
Around 1,700 people have died after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck close to Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, on Friday.
In Bangkok, dozens remain missing after a tower block under construction collapsed during the quake.
Please stay with us as we bring you the latest.
Image source, Getty Images"I thought I was going to die," were the words one English teacher based in Mandalay used to describe her experience of the earthquakes that hit Myanmar on Friday.
Eaint Thadar Phyu is currently staying with her brother - but doesn't have access to electricity or enough water and has said their food supplies will run out in days.
Others in Myanmar continue to wait in hope of news of relatives or loved ones among the hundreds who remain missing.
They join those still waiting at the site of a collapsed building in Bangkok where 76 remain unaccounted for. Although signs of life were detected this morning, they were weak, and huge pieces of debris combined with mangled metal are making rescue attempts difficult.
Rescuers there and in Bangkok continued working into the night as the third day of search efforts following Friday's earthquakes came to a close.
We'll be pausing our live coverage shortly but there's plenty across the BBC to catch you up on the latest news from Myanmar and Thailand:
Shaimaa Khalil
From Bangkok
Nineteen-year-old Choktong Issarangkool is one of the volunteers in the rescue and search teams - he’s also acting as a translator for the American rescue teams here at the site.
He tells me they’ve been assessing one of the basement parking lots areas of the collapsed building - adding that they could see “helmets and boots” which he says “suggests that some construction workers were in this area".
I ask him why the operation has been so slow - it’s just not safe, he says.
“So many iron poles - so many stones that can fall and move anytime.”
Across the day, we've been following the ongoing search efforts in both Bangkok and Myanmar as families continue to wait anxiously for news of their relatives and loved ones.
In Bangkok, 76 workers remain missing after a tower block under construction collapsed on Friday. Hundreds more remain unaccounted for in Myanmar - which saw another quake hit today.
Here's a recap of today's developments:
Shaimaa Khalil
Reporting from Bangkok
I’m at the site of the collapsed tower block in Bangkok where 76 workers remain missing, and rescue efforts are continuing into the night.
The hopes for trying to find people alive are fading - we're into the third night now.
Some of the rescue workers have managed to get on top of that huge pile of rubble of the 30 storeys of the building that pancaked during the earthquake. They seemed to be sifting through the rubble by hand - with rocks and dust flying over the side.
The problem they're facing is that there are huge pieces of debris and mangled metal that have proven difficult to manoeuvre, mostly because they're so stuck together and sometimes because they're dangerously unstable.
They're almost digging around it, and they're being really careful with the amount of rubble and debris that they move.
We've heard from officials that they're hearing signs of life but these signals are weak and one official said that maybe it's because those under the rubble have grown weaker, they have no energy, or they're having difficulty breathing.
They're still trying.
We've also heard from the country's industry minister. Earlier today he said some anomalies have been detected in some of the steel that was used on the site which is now being tested.
It's been an exhausting three days for the families. They say they're going to keep waiting until they hear something but even the bodies that have been recovered haven't been identified so they don't know if their loved ones have been moved to hospitals or are still under the rubble.
The authorities are not giving up, the families are not giving up - but the frustration and the exhaustion is growing.
Myanmar's military council has said there is a level of "difficulty" in granting visas for foreign journalists while authorities are working to support the relief and rescue efforts.
Spokesperson General Zaw Min Tun explains that foreign journalists have been applying for visas in various ways.
"As I said before, we are all very busy here, working from the ground up in the relief work. And foreign news agencies also have representative offices in Myanmar. There are also reporters here," he explains.
"Here too, the authorities are working hard to support the relief work, so it is difficult to communicate with them."
The council asks for understanding that they cannot issue visas.
Michael Innes
BBC World Service, Newshour
Image source, Getty ImagesThe son of the jailed former leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, has told the BBC that he hasn't had any confirmation about his mother's health following the earthquake.
Kim Aris tells Newshour he'd heard that the prison in Nay Pyi Taw where she is being held has been largely unaffected, but there has been no way of getting anything confirmed.
He says that there had been very little contact with her even before the quake: "She has only been allowed to write once in four years of imprisonment."
Her legal team has had no access, and to the best of his knowledge she is being kept in solitary confinement.
"I've had some practice in being separated from her but it's very different now that she is in prison," Aris says.
Asked about the cuts to USAID operations in Myanmar, he comments: "I'm not entirely sure whether they've all left - I known that life-saving humanitarian aid was still on the cards, so hopefully something will be happening there still."
But he added that, in the past, "the military have used natural disasters as weapons against their own people by withholding humanitarian aid".
Image source, ReutersRescuers in Myanmar and Thailand have continued working into the night in the hopes of finding survivors under the rubble after a series of earthquakes hit the two countries over the past three days.
Today, another quake struck Mandalay, while various countries, including China and India, have sent in their own rescue teams to help with search efforts.
Here are the main developments from the past few hours:
Ko Ko Aung
BBC World Service
Image source, ReutersMandalay is Myanmar’s commercial hub and also the cultural centre of the country, which borders a number of countries - including China.
In recent decades, the city has seen significant Chinese settlements with new investments. While this created job opportunities, many Burmese people resent what they see as Chinese domination.
After the military coup in 2021, Mandalay became a target of the opposition forces who often launch attacks on security forces.
As the conflict in Myanmar enters another year, people are facing various difficulties such as shortages of electricity and household goods.
This earthquake, and the aftermath, adds pain on an already-suffering population.
Image source, ReutersMandalay is only 20km from the epicentre of Friday's earthquake and suffered extensive damage
A short while ago, Eaint Thadar Phyu, 18, an English teacher in Mandalay, spoke with our colleagues on the news channel.
She describes being in her hostel having just finished lunch when the first earthquake hit on Friday.
She says she thought the shaking would finish in "a few seconds" but it didn't - and she hugged her two roommates before they decided to leave the building.
They returned when the first earthquake finished to gather some essential items but exited again when the second earthquake hit. Eaint is now with her brother in his house located near to the hostel.
They don't have access to electricity but are using a machine to charge their phones. She also describes not having enough water to wash and that their food will run out in a few days.
"I thought I was going to die," she says. "That [was] my very first experience of that kind of huge earthquake."
Drone and ground attacks by the Myanmar military junta have continued throughout the day in Myanmar.
Bombs were dropped in the Sagaing region and near the Karenni state, where one person has been injured, a source has told the BBC.
As we've been reporting, Sagaing is one of the areas that suffered heavily from the earthquake.
A little earlier, BBC Eye reporter Rebecca Henschke reported on further details of air strikes carried out by the Myanmar military - you can read more on that in our previous post.
It's now nearly 22:00 in Myanmar and 22:30 in Thailand, and rescuers are still working through the night, searching for survivors in the rubble after the earthquake that has killed around 1,700 people.
Here are some images showing their efforts:
Image source, ReutersRescuers work at the site of a damaged building in Mandalay, Myanmar
Image source, ReutersHeavy machinery operate at the site of a building that collapsed in Bangkok
Image source, ReutersRescue personnel work at the site of a building that collapsed in Bangkok
Officials say four people have been rescued and one body recovered from a collapsed school building in the Sagaing region.
The update from Myanmar's fire services department says rescuers are continuing to search for more possible survivors at the site.
Image source, ReutersMandalay, Myanmar's second-biggest city, was heavily damaged by Friday's earthquake
Earlier, we heard from a Thai woman who is waiting for news of her husband at the collapsed high-rise in Bangkok, giving us a sense of the difficult situation many face with little news of their missing loved ones.
Over a thousand kilometres away, locals in Mandalay are also waiting for rescuers to reach people trapped under the rubble of a collapsed monastery.
Monk Bhone Thuta tells AFP he's at a "loss for words" when he sees the destruction caused by the quake, adding "I think the chance of survival is low".
Kyaw Swe, a farmer, says he hasn't received any updates from authorities but says "I hope to see my monk son in good shape".
And for San Nwe Aye, she longs to see one of the monks she knows: "I want to hear the sound of him preaching, I feel happy whenever I see him. The whole village looked up to him. I wonder whether he is suffering, whether he is waiting for us."
James Kelly
BBC News
Image source, Gary BeattieGary Beattie, 61, from Carlisle, is a British teacher working in Mandalay, Myanmar.
He says five teachers from his school are still unaccounted for after the Sky Villa Condominium building collapsed in Mandalay.
Speaking to the BBC, Beattie says he was in KFC celebrating the end of the school year when the earthquake struck.
He’d just paid for his food and was about to sit down when the floor started shaking. He ran outside and saw a huge cloud of dust rising down the street.
"So I knew that meant a building had collapsed and people were dead," he says.
As he walked away, a second quake hit. Beattie says the walls of a shopping centre were "cracking" and debris was "falling into the street".
"It was scary I guess but survival instinct kicks in," he says. "You just think about practical things like keeping your footing and not falling on the road, and getting away from tall crumbling shopping malls."
Image source, GettyIn the post below, we were able to bring you some of the latest pictures from Myanmar's capital, Nay Pyi Taw.
The city is one of the world's newest capitals after the military junta in power in 2005 moved its seat of power from Yangon to the then-unconstructed region.
The following year, the junta gave a name to the more centrally and strategically located capital - Nay Pyi Taw.
According to the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use, the name means "abode of the kings".
We can now bring you new images from Myanmar's capital, Nay Pyi Taw.
These have been released by the country's military leadership.
The first two show the damage done to a hospital in the city, while the third image shows a street in the city.
Image source, Myanmar's military information committee
Image source, Myanmar's military information committee
Image source, Myanmar's military information committeeKo Ko Aung
BBC World Service
Image source, Getty ImagesA 2012 photo of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose government was ousted by the Burmese military in 2021
The National Unity Government (NUG) was formed in April 2021, by groups that oppose the military junta currently in control of Myanmar, shortly after the military coup in February that year.
The Burmese military, known as the Tatmadaw, ousted the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, just as it was about to begin a second five-year term.
She was later jailed for over 30 years after being found guilty of multiple corruption charges.
A harsh crackdown on pro-democracy protests pushed many young people to flee to ethnic areas, where they took up arms against the military.
Many joined the NUG’s armed wing, the People’s Defence Force (PDF). Working with ethnic armed groups, they’ve become a major force, now controlling much of the country outside the main cities.
Some smaller local groups in central Myanmar also call themselves PDF, though not all are under NUG command – even if they’re fighting on the same side.
The NUG is still struggling to gain international recognition and says it’s mainly funded by Myanmar’s people at home and abroad.
Rebecca Henschke
BBC Eye reporter and former Asia editor
The Myanmar military is continuing to carry out air strikes despite condemnation from the United Nations (UN) and calls for it to halt all military operations in the wake of the earthquake.
A local unit of the People’s Defence Force – a network of pro-democracy rebel units – is reporting that the military carried out a helicopter attack on Pauk township in Magway region, which is close to the epicentre of the quake.
BBC Burmese is also reporting an air strike took place in Bahmo in Kachin state, on Sunday.
Singapore's foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan has called for an immediate ceasefire to allow for the distribution of humanitarian aid and for long-term peace for reconstruction.
He said the military regime, that seized power in a coup four years ago, should be focusing on saving lives and helping those in need, as the country is in a "life-or-death" period following the earthquake.
He was speaking at an online meeting of foreign ministers from the regional body Asean.
UN investigators have warned the Myanmar military has carried out war crimes and crimes against humanity as it attempts to crush a nationwide uprising fighting to remove it from power.
The National Unity Government, which represents the ousted civilian administration, said its rebel units would pause fighting from today for two weeks. That appears to be holding.
The earthquake struck close to Myanmar's second largest city, Mandalay, at 06:20 GMT on Friday - around noon in South East Asia.
The main shock was recorded as a magnitude 7.7 earthquake by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The earthquake was relatively shallow - about 10km down - meaning its effect was felt more strongly on the surface than a deeper quake would have been.
A second earthquake struck 12 minutes later, with a magnitude of 6.4, and a number of smaller tremors have been recorded since.
