Image source, Getty Images

We're at the start of the sixth day since a magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked Myanmar.

Search and rescue is still going on in the worst-hit areas of Mandalay and Sagaing, at the centre of the country. But hopes of finding survivors are fading.

More than 2,700 people have died so far, with hundreds still missing, while more than 4,500 are injured, according to the military government. The toll is expected to rise.

Meanwhile supplies are quickly dwindling for the survivors. The UN has urged the international community to expedite the delivery of aid, external before the upcoming monsoon season, which it says will "even worsen this horrendous crisis".

However, the junta has rejected ceasefire proposals by rebel groups, who raised concerns about how a patchwork of civil conflicts are severely hampering relief efforts.

Last Friday's powerful earthquake also affected cities in Thailand and China. More than 70 people are still believed to be trapped in the rubble of a high-rise building in Bangkok. At least 21 people have been killed in Thailand.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest from the ground in Mandalay and Bangkok.

A minute of silence has been held in Myanmar for the more that 2,700 people who died from Friday's 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck near Mandalay.

BBC's Burmese service has now reached the city, where more images of destruction have emerged

More than 70 people are still believed to be trapped in the rubble of the high-rise in Bangkok, while the city is no longer a disaster zone.

At least 21 people are known to have died in Thailand.

Hopes to find more people alive are fading, as the critical 72-hour window from when the earthquake struck has now passed.

We are pausing our coverage now, but will bring you more updates on the earthquake's aftermath as we get them.

In the meantime, there's plenty of content across the BBC to read.

Mandalay was the 'city of gold' - now it reeks of death

BBC Verify: What satellite images reveal about Myanmar's quake

Heartbroken parents call out children's names at earthquake-hit pre-school

Image source, Getty Images

The death toll from the Myanmar earthquake is now at 2,719, the military chief Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech on state television on Tuesday.

The number of people injured is 4,521, while 441 people are still missing.

Min Aung Hlaing added that the numbers could rise and the death toll could cross 3,000.

Meanwhile in the Thai capital, Bangkok, another body has been recovered from the rubble of a collapsed skyscraper, bringing the total number of people who have died there to 14.

Samir Wanmali, regional director for Asia at the World Food Programme (WFP), has told the BBC that the organisation is only meeting a fraction of the need in Myanmar.

"The destruction is immense and at this stage it’s early to determine the true impact. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people are left homeless, and don’t have access to food, shelter or water," he says.

"That’s why the emergency and humanitarian response becomes even more important in the coming weeks and months."

Wanmali adds that the WFP is facing challenges travelling in the country due to the destruction of roads and bridges, and that mobile and other communications networks are patchy - which is making it difficult for staff to communicate.

These are difficulties that our team in Myanmar has also said they are dealing with.

Our colleages from the BBC Burmese Service have been speaking to eyewitnesses in Mandalay following Friday's earthquake.

They spoke to a monk who was in the building next to a Sky Villa Condo which partially collapsed during the quake.

"When the quake started, I was in the next building, in a room adjacent to the condo. I heard a loud banging sound from the condo," he says.

The Sky Villa Condo had four sections, A, B, C and D, he explains. Section D fell over the lake at the back with a loud bang. The rest – A, B and C didn’t collapse entirely but tilted towards the front. He says that when the earthquake hit, he saw "everyone running out".

"I’ve seen most rescue workers are Chinese, some are Burmese too. In this section here, they saved three people last night. It’s not clear if they were alive, but sounded like those were bodies," he says.

"I saw at least 30 bodies that were recovered, including those we helped with. I haven’t seen anyone pulled out alive lately. Only dead bodies have been recovered.

"I hope this will be over soon. There are many [bodies] still inside, I think more than a hundred. They haven’t started searching in Sections B and C which are more important. Most of the people were in there. They haven’t started work there."

Myanmar is still reeling from the magnitude 7.7 earthquake which hit the country on Friday, 28 March.

The earthquake's epicentre was located 16km (10 miles) north-west of the town of Sagaing, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The strong quake buckled roads, damaged bridges and flattened many buildings in Myanmar - a country of some 55 million people.

The official death toll in Myanmar now stands at more than 2,000 but this is expected to keep rising as rescuers gain access to more collapsed buildings. Many of the fatalities so far were in Mandalay.

Meanwhile in Bangkok, Thailand, 20 people have been confirmed dead and more than 70 remain under a collapsed high-rise building.

Read more here, including what causes earthquakes and why it's difficult to know what's really happening in Myanmar.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt has lifted the city's designation as a disaster zone, which it was given last Friday after the earthquake, as the city braced itself for aftershocks and authorities began disaster relief efforts.

In a statement on Monday night, Chadchart said officials have addressed the damage from the quake and most residents' lives have returned to normal.

The Thai capital has emerged largely unscathed from the quake, but more than 70 people remain trapped under the rubble of a skyscraper.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

If you're just joining us, here's the latest on the aftermath of the earthquake in Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.

• At 12:51 local time (06:21 GMT), the exact time the earthquake had struck last Friday, Myanmar observed a minute of silence to remember the victims - part of a week of national mourning
• Myanmar has confirmed over 2,000 dead, while the death toll in Thailand stands at 20
• Our team has arrived in Mandalay, near the epicentre of the quake. Residents of the city are dealing with the death of family members, loss of shelter, and food shortages
• Thai authorities say they've spotted around six bodies in the Bangkok rubble where a high-rise building collapsed on Friday
• The city's governor said on Tuesday that rescuers are preparing to dig deeper into the debris, where more than 70 people are trapped, "to move dead bodies out"

Thuzar Linn
BBC Burmese, in Mandalay

I was at the wreckage of the collapsed Sky Villa condo in Mandalay when a rescue leader told us not to panic ahead of a siren that would soon ring at 12:51 - the exact moment an earthquake struck on Friday.

There was calm for a minute - with rescue teams and family members around the area standing silently and paying their respects to the victims.

Some even saluted before a closing siren rang out.

Myanmar has fallen silent for one minute to mourn those who died from Friday's powerful earthquake.

The country's military leaders asked earlier this week that the country come to a standstill at 12:51 local time (06:21 GMT) - which is the exact time that the deadly quake struck on Friday.

BBC Burmese Service

Here are the photos we're just getting from our team in Mandalay, taken as they drove through the city devastated by the massive earthquake last Friday.

More than 2,000 have died from the disaster, according to Myanmar's military government, and many of the fatalities are in Mandalay, the South East Asian nation's second largest city.

Image source, BBC Burmese

Image source, BBC Burmese

Image source, BBC Burmese

Image source, BBC Burmese

Image source, BBC Burmese

Tessa Wong and BBC Burmese
Reporting from Thailand

Image source, Tessa Wong/BBC

Ko Naing is one of the millions of Myanmar's diaspora anxiously watching from afar as their country struggles following its biggest earthquake in a century.

"I have no remorse for leaving the country, because I had to. But I feel guilty because our people need us the most now. I feel helpless," said the 35-year-old labour rights activist.

When he fled Myanmar last year, Ko Naing did not trust anyone enough to tell them of his plan – except his beloved Oo Oo ('uncle' in Burmese).

His Oo Oo was killed by the powerful earthquake that struck Sagaing near Mandalay last Friday, claiming at least 2,000 lives.

Many like Ko Naing are worried about their families back home.

Read more about the stories of Burmese migrants here.

Arunoday Mukharji
BBC News

The cities of Sagaing and Mandalay in Myanmar have been hit hardest by Friday's earthquake, but updates have been slow to trickle out of the country, which is ruled by a military junta.

When the BBC visited Thailand's border with Myanmar, Burmese residents there say they fear for the safety of their families back home.

Vee Intarakratug and Adam Hancock
Reporting from Bangkok

Bangkok's deputy governor Tavida Kamolvej has told reporters from the site of the collapsed high-rise today that rescuers have seen five or six bodies under the rubble through a scanner.

As hopes fade for survivors, she said that in many cases people survive for more than 72 hours.

She added that rescuers would try their best to get as many bodies out of the debris as they can.

Kelly Ng
Reporting from Singapore

Image source, J

Dead bodies have had to be "cremated in stacks" in Mandalay, a student who lives in the Mahaaungmyay district has told the BBC.

The 23-year-old, who wanted only to be known as J, lost her aunt in last Friday's earthquake. "But her body was only pulled out of the rubble two days later, on 30 March," J said.

Those who have survived are living in despair, she said, noting how she and her family have barely slept and are witnessing new damage each day as aftershocks hit.

"I have seen many people, myself included, crouching over and crying out loud on the streets," J said.

Young children have been especially traumatised, she said. "They refuse to go back into the houses. Almost all people in the the city are choosing to sleep only on the streets, until everything settles down."

But relief has been slow.

"[The resuce teams] have been working non-stop for four days and I think they are a little tired. They need some rest as well.

"But because the damage has been so extensive, we have limited resources here, it is simply hard for the relief workers to manage such massive destruction efficiently," she said.

Image source, J

Thuzar Linn
BBC Burmese, in Mandalay

I am now in Mandalay, near the epicentre of the earthquake. We arrived late last night, one full day later than planned. When we drove into the city, it was completely dark – there was no power, no drinking water, and we couldn’t find a bathroom.

We hadn’t been able to book a hotel in advance and the backup plan was to sleep in our car. After driving around for a bit, somehow we got lucky and managed to find a hotel. But there was no food there, so we stepped out to look for some. There were some shops open, but there were long queues and it was very crowded.

We didn’t have internet all of last night and connectivity with our team in Yangon was very patchy, with phone lines barely working. We had to go to the terrace of the hotel to try to patch in to a network.

Late at night, there was a huge aftershock. We didn’t feel safe sleeping in the hotel, so we left and found shelter at a monastery nearby. We returned to the hotel in the morning to collect our bags.

This was the first time we were seeing Mandalay in the light – the city is filled with ruins.

As we've been reporting, the military government in Myanmar has said that at least 2,000 people were killed in the magnitude 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit last Friday.

There is a strong possibility that the death toll, however, could be much higher, according to the US Geological Survey.

Myanmar's army, which has previously downplayed civilian casualties after other large natural disasters, is not allowing foreign journalists into the country.

From neighbouring Thailand, BBC Verify's Nick Beake has been building a picture of the impact of the quake in the worst affected areas that we know about. Take a watch below:

Image source, Getty Images

We have just heard from Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt, who says no vital signs have been detected from the ruins of a high-rise in Thailand's capital where more than 70 people are trapped.

Rescuers are preparing to dig deeper this morning, with heavy cranes prepared, he says.

They have previously refrained from using heavy machinery out of fear that the building would collapse further. They had detected some survivors trapped under the rubble early in the operation, but in the days since, only dead bodies - 13 of them - have been recovered.

Chadchart said this morning that the current operation was "to move the dead body out, which is not easy to work under these debris".

However, authorities have not officially labelled this a recovery operation.

Nick Marsh
Reporting from Thailand

Image source, Getty Images

The minute's silence will be begin at 12:51 local time (07:21 BST), the exact moment the earthquake struck on Friday.

Myanmar's ruling military junta says national flags will fly at half-mast for five days and people should stop where they are to pay respect to the victims.

The regime has invited in aid and rescue help from around the world, including teams from Russia, China and the United States. But the scale of the task ahead appears overwhelming - aid groups are warning of disease outbreaks, while poor infrastructure and a patchwork of civil conflicts are severely hampering the relief effort.

The BBC's Burmese Service has sent back images of the devastation from within Myanmar, where no rescue work is taking place.

Although the official number of dead stands at around 2,000, the military junta has a history of suppressing the scale of national disasters. Here in Thailand's capital Bangkok, meanwhile, dozens of construction workers remain buried under the rubble of a collapsed unfinished skyscraper.

Image source, Getty Images

As rescue and relief efforts continue in Myanmar and Thailand, here's where things stand:

• In Myanmar, more than 2,000 people have died and nearly 4,000 have been injured, according to the military government
• The smell of death has filled the streets in the city of Sagaing, near the quake's epicentre, while crematoriums in nearby Mandalay are reportedly overwhelmed. Aid agencies have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in these areas
• Meanwhile, the death toll in Thailand, is now at 20. Thirteen of them are from a collapsed high-rise in Bangkok, where more than 70 remain trapped

• Rescue operations are still underway in Bangkok, but officials have said that they are unable to detect vital signs from the debris.