Smell Of Death Permeates Myanmar Cities After Quake Kills Over 1,600 And Leaves Countless Buried

TOPSHOT – People drive on a motorbike past a collapsed building in Mandalay on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake in central Myanmar. A powerful earthquake rocked central Myanmar on March 28, buckling roads in capital Naypyidaw, damaging buildings and forcing people to flee into the streets in neighbouring Thailand. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

MANDALAY, Myanmar (AP) — The smell of decaying bodies permeated the streets of Myanmar’s second-largest city on Sunday as people worked frantically by hand to clear rubble in the hope of finding someone still alive, two days after a massive earthquake struck that killed more than 1,600 people and left countless others buried. The 7.7 magnitude quake hit midday Friday with an epicenter near Mandalay, bringing down scores of buildings and damaging other infrastructure like the city’s airport. Relief efforts have been hampered by buckled roads, downed bridges, spotty communications and the challenges of operating in a country in the midst of a civil war.