Myanmar quake: NDRF retrieves 7 bodies

New Delhi, Mar 31 (PTI) The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Monday recovered seven bodies from the earthquake flattened buildings in Mandalay region of Myanmar after the Indian rescuers were tasked with launching relief and rescue operations in about a dozen buildings, official sources said.

The Myanmarese authorities have assigned various sectors to different foreign rescue agencies which have come to help the country that was shaken by a devastating 7.7-magnitude quake on Friday claiming 1,700 lives till now.

The NDRF has been asked to work in 13 buildings in Sector D of Mandalay city, the second largest urban area of the country, about 65 kms from the airport in capital Naypitaw.

At least seven bodies have been retrieved by NDRF personnel till now who landed in the country on Saturday as part of the humanitarian ‘Operation Brahma’ launched by India to help its neighbour with which it shares a 1,643-km-long international boundary.

The 80 Indian federal rescuers are also working at the U hla thein monastery where 170 monks are stated to be stuck. Three bodies (out of the seven) were recovered by the NDRF from this location, the sources said.

The squad, armed with plasma cutters, hammers and other equipment used to search beneath collapsed structures, has also deployed four canines to search for signs of life which look to be “very bleak”.

The temperature in Myanmar is high and hence the aim of the NDRF and other local and foreign rescue teams is to quickly retrieve bodies so that an epidemic does not break out due to rotting, the sources said.

Pictures shared by the Indian Embassy in Yangon showed Indian rescuers in their orange combat uniform cutting through heavy slabs.

As per a news report by the AP, Myanmar government spokesman Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun told state-run MRTV that the death toll has climbed to 1,700, another 3,400 have been injured and more than 300 were missing.