A woman buried alive under the rubble of a collapsed hotel in earthquake-hit Mandalay city in Myanmar has been successfully pulled from the wreckage, as the window to find survivors closes fast.
China's national rescue team extricated the woman just after midnight on Monday, local time, according to a Chinese government post on Facebook.
The rescue came nearly 60 hours after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake wreaked mass devastation in Myanmar and damage in neighbouring Thailand.
It is a glimmer of hope as searchers in both countries race against time to save more lives during the critical 72-hour "golden period", as the death toll from Friday's quake exceeds 1,700.
The female survivor, found with stable vital signs, was pulled from the rubble of the Great Wall Hotel following a tense five-hour operation.
She is the first person saved by the China Search and Rescue Team since their arrival in the hardest-hit city on Sunday afternoon.
The earthquake left half of the hotel severely tilted, with the ground floor reduced to rubble.
China joins rescue efforts
Several rescue teams — including the China Search and Rescue Team, volunteer responders from China's Shenzhen city, and a team from Russia — are conducting joint operations on site.
China's national rescue team also joined efforts at the Sky Villa Condominium, one of the buildings most severely affected in Mandalay.
Of the four 11-storey apartment buildings in the complex, only the top six floors of one remained standing after the disaster, while the lower levels had completely collapsed.
As of Sunday afternoon, cries for help could still be heard from the rubble of three collapsed buildings as rescue teams were rushed to the scene.
Meanwhile in Bangkok, Thailand's capital, emergency crews on Monday resumed a desperate search for 76 people believed buried under the rubble of an under-construction skyscraper that collapsed.
After nearly three days, fears have been growing that the rescuers would find more dead bodies, which could sharply raise Thailand's death toll that stood at 18 on Sunday.
UN rushes relief supplies to survivors
The United Nations said it was rushing relief supplies to the estimated 23,000 earthquake survivors in central Myanmar.
"Our teams in Mandalay are joining efforts to scale up the humanitarian response despite going through the trauma themselves," Myanmar UN Refugee Agency representative Noriko Takagi said.
"Time is of the essence as Myanmar needs global solidarity and support through this immense devastation."
Meanwhile, the US has pledged $US2 million ($3.2 million) in aid "through Myanmar-based humanitarian assistance organisations" in the wake of the devastating quake.
It said in a statement that an emergency response team from USAID, which is undergoing massive cuts under the Trump administration, is deploying to Myanmar.
China claimed on Monday it had sent its first batch of relief supplies worth 100 million yuan ($21 million) to Myanmar including tents, blankets and first aid kits.
Reuters
