Rescuers climbed the wreckage at the Smart Villa Private High School in the suburb of Mandalay on Saturday until a blocked door blocked their access.
“Is there anyone inside?” they shouted.
Dozens of people gathered outside and quietly heard crying, voices, and whispers. But there is no sound.
The six-story building was reduced to half in half in Friday’s earthquake, with the lower floor being tricked into sloping concrete.
Steel steel plate chains emerge from the broken shell of its top layer and twist into the shape of tangled tree roots by a 7.7 tremor.
A huge teddy bear wearing a pink T-shirt facing down in the rubble.
Locals say at least seven people were trapped inside, including two teachers and several children. In the hours after the earthquake, seven other people died and two were extracted.
Dozens of family members and neighbors sat on the ground, watching quietly, hoping for more good news.
Yin Nu’s 26-year-old daughter, Yamin Shwe Zin, is one of the teachers trapped inside, sitting on one side. She arrived at night of the earthquake.
Once, the rescuer heard her call from inside: “I am teacher Yamin. I am still alive. Please help me. I’m thirsty.”
Her mother has been waiting ever since.
She told AFP in tears: “I couldn’t fall asleep all night.
“I was around the building like a crazy person. I could only shout out my daughter’s name and cry because there was nothing I could do.”
– “It’s hard to accept” –
At Paleik School, a suburb of Myanmar’s second largest city, there are usually about 200 students aged 12 to 15, but the semester has been completed and most have left.
All of these in one of these buildings escaped. But others have dance exercises at the upcoming Water Festival (traditional Burmese New Year), in the classroom on the fifth floor when the earthquake hits and lowers the structure.
Myanmar is often hit by disasters, outside of the civil war that has been erupting since the army removed Aund San Suu Kyi from his election to the government.
“I escaped from the building,” said 35-year-old teacher Kim Ma Zin.
“It’s a natural disaster,” she added. “We can face this every year.”
Rescuers used a pneumatic drill to remove the concrete blocks, and then a mechanical excavator removed one toilet to bring another vehicle closer.
Hud’s cramped observer barely spoke, Yin Nu tried hard to hope that her British graduate daughter (one of her four children) would survive.
“My son told me that it seems his sister wouldn’t do that,” she said.
“I have a hard time accepting it – she is my daughter.”
She said she could feel her presence, hold her hands tightly, and insisted that her child would not leave her.
“She is a very considerate daughter. Every time she goes to the temple or visits the pagoda, she always prays that she can become a daughter who can take care of her parents.”
SLB-HLA/SST
