Myanmar death toll to reach 50,000: Save the Chidlren
Pastor Dale Morgan
Myanmar death toll to reach 50,000: Save the Chidlren*
BANGKOK, May 6 (AFP) May 06, 2008
Save the Children said Tuesday that it expected the death toll from
Myanmar's devastating cyclone to reach as high as 50,000, after the
government said more than 22,000 people were dead and 41,000 missing.
The aid agency's Bangkok-based spokesman Dan Collinson said the rapidly
escalating death toll would rise sharply again in the next few days as
victims of Saturday's powerful cyclone were located.
"If at this stage, only four days in, the government are telling us the
numbers are already reaching over 20,000 and there are 40,000 people
missing, I think it could well go higher," he told AFP.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it went as high as 50,000," he said.
Save the Children is one of the few relief agencies allowed to operate
in the reclusive country. It said it has already begun distributing food
and shelter materials to some 30,000 victims of the disaster.
Collinson said the organisation has 500 staff operating in all the
affected regions of the country.
Save the Children's international staff are attempting to gain access to
Myanmar, but by late Tuesday they were one of several agencies awaiting
visa approval from the Myanmar authorities.
On Tuesday, state television dramatically raised the death toll from the
15,000 announced hours earlier.
"According to the information as of 12 noon today, 21,793 people were
killed and 40,695 were missing in Irrawaddy division, while 671 were
killed, 670 were injured and 359 people were missing in Yangon
division," it said.
Three other regions of Myanmar were also affected by the cyclone, but
state media gave no report on the casualties in those areas.