More than 2,700 people have been killed in Myanmar's earthquake disaster, with survivors now in desperate need of food, water and shelter, as aid groups warn the window to find people still alive was closing fast.
The country's military ruler, Min Aung Hlaing, said Friday's magnitude-7.7 quake was expected to surpass 3,000, having reached 2,719 on Tuesday, with 4,521 people injured and 441 missing.
In his televised speech, he spoke of "lessons learned" and criticised the poor quality of construction.
"Some buildings were built cheaply, without spending enough money on them," he said.
The quake was the strongest to hit the country in more than a century, inflicting significant damage on Myanmar's second city, Mandalay, and the capital, Naypyitaw.
In neighbouring Thailand, where the quake caused damage to hundreds of buildings, the number of people killed climbed to 21.
Rescuers continued searching for life in the rubble of a collapsed skyscraper under construction in the capital, Bangkok, but acknowledged time was against them.
In Myanmar, United Nations agencies said hospitals were overwhelmed and rescue efforts hindered by infrastructure damage and the country's civil war.
Aid groups raised the alarm over a lack of food, water and sanitation, as aftershocks continued to rattle the region.
Julia Rees, of the UN children's agency UNICEF, who just returned from one of the worst-affected areas near the epicentre in central Myanmar, said entire communities had been flattened and destruction and psychological trauma was immense.
"This crisis is still unfolding. The tremors are continuing. Search and rescue operations are ongoing. Bodies are still being pulled from the rubble," she said in a statement.
"Let me be clear: the needs are massive, and they are rising by the hour. The window for life-saving response is closing."
Multiple UN Agencies have raised the alarm about the shortage of drinking water, with concerns of cholera spreading.
"It is really dire — the most immediate need is water, it is super hot out there … Water pipes and septic tanks have broken," Ms Rees said.
The World Health Organization said hospitals were overwhelmed and that medical supplies were running out, and that there were shortages of running water and fuel.
The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, has identified the situation as a top-level humanitarian crisis and is mobilising stocks like plastic sheets, sleeping material and mosquito nets.
Unni Krishnan from Plan International told the ABC's The World his organisation was focused on providing food, water and shelter, but was also looking to provide mental health support to those in the country, particularly children.
"Hundreds of thousands of children will be sleeping in the open air without a roof over their head," Mr Kishnan said, noting that many were in fear of aftershocks, which continue to rattle parts of the country.
"With each passing day, those symptoms and anxieties, which are absolutely normal reactions to an abnormal setting, will start getting out of control.
"Even the fear of an aftershock will amplify the anxieties of children."
[THE WORLD IV]In the Mandalay area, 50 children and two teachers were killed when their preschool collapsed, the UN humanitarian agency said.
In a rare survival story, a 63-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble of a building in Naypyitaw after being trapped for 91 hours.
She was found on Tuesday morning and pulled out an hour later, the Myanmar fire department said, following a joint rescue with teams from India, China and Russia.
Civil war complicating war effort
The civil war in Myanmar, where the military seized power in a coup in 2021, has complicated efforts to reach those injured and made homeless, including tight controls over the internet and other communication networks.
One rebel group, the Karen National Union, on Sunday said the junta had conducted air strikes in the east of the country at a time when it should be prioritising quake relief efforts.
Patrick Phongsathorn, a senior advocacy specialist at Fortify Rights, told ABC's The World program Myanmar was facing a catastrophe "that is being compounded by a brutal military junta that is seemingly intent on increasing the human suffering".
"The past years of brutal civil war have not helped in terms of the resilience of the country to withstand an emergency like this," Mr Phongsathorn said.
"What we're seeing now is the politicisation of humanitarian aid and ongoing attacks against civilians by military jets and artillery.
"It's a really desperate situation."
He said the international community needed to call for an immediate ceasefire to ensure people got the help they deserved.
"Without a ceasefire, I don't really understand how humanitarians can really go about doing their job delivering humanitarian aid," he said.
"It would make it a lot more difficult and a lot more dangerous for them to do that, especially to the areas where the junta isn't in control, which is a large proportion of the country."
The Three Brotherhood Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups that has been at war with the junta, declared a unilateral one-month ceasefire on Tuesday, to allow urgent humanitarian efforts to "be carried out as swiftly and effectively as possible".
The junta has not yet commented on the alliance's decision.
Rescue efforts continue in Thailand
In Thailand's capital, Bangkok, rescuers were still searching for any signs of life in the ruins of an unfinished skyscraper that collapsed.
There were an estimated 70 bodies under the rubble and experts said 12 had been located using scanners, but large debris blocked the way and rescuers were cutting concrete slabs to remove them.
"Our focus is on the survival. There are cases where people have survived for one week," Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt told reporters.
"We cannot say there is no hope … if there is structure and air and no direct heat. We will keep going."
Search and rescue efforts were supported by multinational teams including personnel from the US and Israel, as family and friends said they feared the worst.
"The rescue teams are doing their best. I can see that," said 19-year-old Artithap Lalod, who was waiting for news of his brother.
The government has launched an investigation into the cause of the collapse, with initial testing of the steel used for the construction raising questions about its quality.
Fourteen deaths have been confirmed at the building site and seven elsewhere in the city.
ABC/wires
