Myanmar military junta asks for earthquake aid

Newshour

BBC

News, Daily News

4.4 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Myanmar’s military government has asked the international community for aid after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country. We hear from rescue workers in the Mandalay area, close to the earthquake’s epicentre.

Also on the programme: US Vice President JD Vance visits Greenland, without an invitation from the Greenlandic government; and the singer Dua Lipa is cleared of accusations of plagiarising elements of her song ‘Levitating’.

(Picture: People look at damaged house in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, 28 March 2025 Credit: NYEIN CHAN NAING/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service coming live from London.
0:07.7	This is Owen Bennett Jones.
0:09.9	The earthquake in Myanmar was huge, so big that the military authorities have overcome their normal ideas about self-reliance and have asked for help.
0:19.9	The epicenter was near the city of Mandalay and just 10
0:23.2	kilometers from the surface. The earthquake also hit Thailand. And since Bangkok is a much more
0:29.2	open city than any in Myanmar, many of the images of the damage caused by the earthquake so far
0:34.7	have come from there and they show substantial damage to high-rise buildings.
0:38.9	We'll hear more from Bangkok later in the program, but first to Myanmar.
0:43.5	We've been sent this testimony of a man who is rescuing people in the Mandalay area, close to the epicenter.
0:50.3	He wants to remain anonymous for fear of the military, so one of our producers read what he said.
0:56.2	I have seen more than 100 people dead in one village alone.
1:00.7	Buildings in Amarapura and Tadayu are completely collapsed.
1:06.2	People there need medical teams, and small earthquakes are still happening.
1:13.0	Everyone is on the field and the roads as they're afraid of the aftershocks. I am part of the residents that are helping in the rescue.
1:19.4	There is no help from the military. It is just us, regular people. We need machines to get the
1:26.0	people out who are under the rubble. We are digging
1:29.0	people out with our bare hands. It's not enough to get the bodies and the people out who are
1:35.0	trapped under the rubble. People are screaming. Help me. Help me. I feel so hopeless.
1:43.5	Well, another rescue worker who's in Mandalay sent this voice note.
1:47.5	He also asked to be anonymous. He's been helping get some of the injured to a hospital in the city.
1:57.7	Mandalay General Hospital is full of patients. We see many injured people, unconscious from heart attacks.
2:04.4	The hospital was also damaged by the earthquake itself,
	...

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