The death toll from the March 28 magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Myanmar has reportedly moved past the 1000 mark. It is expected to climb further with some claims hinting at several thousand people still unaccounted for. According to one CNN report, the “US Geological Survey estimated that the death toll could top 10,000.”

Internet and mobile phone services in the Mandalay region have been badly affected with a source in the city speaking to bno IntelliNews indicating that around 90% of the surrounding region was without these services 24 hours after the earthquake.

Whilst this is hampering the international response effort, Myanmar’s western neighbour India was one of the first to react according to Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for the nation’s Ministry of External Affairs, who posted on X that “Operation Brahma - India acts as a First Responder to assist the people of Myanmar affected by yesterday's massive earthquake. Our first tranche of 15 tonnes of relief material, including tents, blankets, sleeping bags, food packets, hygiene kits, generators, and essential medicines has landed in Yangon” accompanied by a picture of an Indian C-130 aircraft.

China too is understood to have sent aid with the first aircraft arriving on the morning of March 29. “Beijing will also provide CNY100mn ($13mn) worth of humanitarian aid to Myanmar, its foreign aid agency said Saturday,” as reported by CNN, before it was added that Moscow too “was quick to follow China in deploying its own team of specialists, including dog teams, anesthesiologists and psychologists”

Multiple reports suggest that a number of other Asian nations have also indicated their willingness to help including Malysia, Singapore and Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Science Ambassador of the Union of Concerned Scientists and former Democratic candidate Jess Phoenix, a respected volcanologist, also told CNN that “The force that a quake like this releases is about 334 atomic bombs.”

However, even as international media agencies were reporting a death toll of over 1000, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management had only just released an initial assessment report of the earthquake in both Burmese and English indicating the initial death toll stood at 369+ with the number of those injured standing at 1822+ and missing totalling 223+.

The government also indicated that there were almost 3000 damaged buildings and seven bridges in a state of disrepair. Five dams were reported as suffering structural damage although the extent of the damage remains unknown.