Powerful earthquake devastates critical infrastructure in Sagaing

China

Powerful earthquake devastates critical infrastructure in Sagaing

2025-03-30 19:53 Last Updated At：22:37

The powerful earthquake that struck Myanmar on Friday severely damaged buildings and critical public infrastructure in the Sagaing region and surrounding areas.

The 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar at around 12:50 local time (06:20 GMT) on Friday, with Mandalay, Bago, Magway, the northeastern Shan state, Sagaing, and Nay Pyi Taw among the hardest-hit regions.

As of Sunday noon local time, the earthquake had claimed 1,700 lives, injured 3,400 people, and left some 300 others unaccounted for, according to Myanmar's Information Team of the State Administration Council.

Video footage from China Central Television (CCTV) on Sunday afternoon showed severe damage to key roads linking Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, and the Sagaing region, with visible cracks and large fractures making travel treacherous.

Additionally, century-old Ava Bridge, also called the Old Sagaing Bridge, which spanned the Irrawaddy River between Mandalay and Sagaing regions collapsed during the severe quake.

Reporting from Sagaing City, a CCTV journalist observed that the earthquake had destroyed the majority of buildings in the urban area.

Endangered flower found in China's Yunnan

Fewer than 40 specimens of habenaria plurifoliata, a rare and endangered perennial herbaceous orchid, have been discovered in a nature reserve in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The new discovery bolsters future population surveys, habitat research and conservation efforts for the species.

Discovered for the first time at Longling County's Xiaoheishan Nature Reserve, the plant grows in humid valley meadow in two locations, with each measuring more than 70 centimeters in height.

A single habenaria plurifoliata plant produces 10 to 25 flowers. The blossoms are green or greenish-white, with the upper outer petals slightly curved upward, resembling a sickle or a tongue.

Its flower buds resemble drill bits, while its fruits are spindle-shaped.

This plant has a narrow distribution, found primarily in Yunnan Province, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Guizhou Province in south and southwest China.