Exclusive
‘It's desperate’: Ex-UK ambassador to Myanmar tells LBC of friend 'trapped' by earthquake, as over 1,000 dead
29 March 2025, 10:13 | Updated: 29 March 2025, 11:52
A former UK ambassador to Myanmar has told of how her friend was trapped in the earthquake that has killed over 1,000 people.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Vicky Bowman told LBC News' David Harper that the situation in the war-torn south-east Asian country was "desperate" after the 7.7 earthquake, which struck on Friday.
At least 1,002 people have now been found dead and another 2,376 injured, with 30 others missing, according to the country's military government, which is engaged in a civil war. The death toll is likely to rise as rescue work continues.
Ms Bowman, who was the UK's top diplomat in Myanmar between 2002 and 2006 and is not in the country, said that what she had seen of the destruction was "very, very disturbing".
She said that in Mandalay, near the epicentre, "internet connections are down, [and] electricity is pretty non-existent."
"At least one of my friends as of yesterday was trapped in a building there," she said. "I haven't heard from them. "
She said that her husband, a Burmese artist and political activist, is in Myanmar. He was driving at the time that the earthquake hit, but managed to stay safe.
"He described how he was... thrown from one side of the road to the other, but luckily managed to keep control of the car," Ms Bowman said.
A state of emergency has been declared in six regions and states in Myanmar by the government.
The country is in the throes of a prolonged and bloody civil war, which is already responsible for a massive humanitarian crisis.
It makes movement around the country both difficult and dangerous, complicating relief efforts and raising fears that the death toll could still rise precipitously.
Ms Bowman added that the damage to infrastructure would make national and international relief efforts even harder.
"All the surrounding small towns [around Mandalay] have just lost most of the infrastructure there," she said.
"Both the buildings themselves, the religious buildings where people would often move to take shelter, and then also the roads, which is going to have a massive impact on the relief effort."
She added the routes through which things would be brought in from China to Mandalay have been complicated by the conflict and the earthquake.
"The road through from China to Mandalay, that road has now been closed the last year because of conflict," she said.
"The airports in Mandalay, in Naypyidaw, the new capital, they are completely closed. The air traffic control tower in Naypyidaw collapsed. So there's a real absence of land routes. There are limitations on air. And even the river route, we've seen the major old bridge just near Mandalay collapse. So that's going to block some river traffic.
"So it will be really difficult to bring stuff in even if there is the resources."
Major General Zaw Min Tun, a military government spokesperson, told MRTV that blood was in high demand in the hospitals in earthquake-hit areas, especially Mandalay, Sagaing, and Naypyitaw.
He urged blood donors to contact the hospitals as soon as possible.
Some international aid workers have made it into the country.
A 37-member team from the Chinese province of Yunnan reached the city of Yangon early Saturday with earthquake detectors, drones and other supplies, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Russia's emergencies ministry dispatched two planes carrying 120 rescuers and supplies, according to a report from the Russian state news agency Tass.
Pool in Bangkok shakes after earthquake hits Myanmar
India sent a search and rescue team and a medical team as well as provisions, while Malaysia's foreign ministry said the country will send 50 people on Sunday to help identify and provide aid to the worst-hit areas.
The United Nations' emergency relief coordinator made an initial allocation of five million dollars (£3.86 million) for recovery efforts in the area as the international body works to recover from massive US funding cuts to the region.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN staff were working to gather information on the number of people impacted, damage to infrastructure and the scope of the humanitarian needs.
Ms Bowman was arrested in Myanmar in August 2022 and sentenced to a year in prison, in what was regarded by many international observers as a politically-motivated case. She was released in November that year, and deported.
King Charles sent his condolences after the earthquake, saying: "I know that the people of Myanmar continue to endure so much hardship and tragedy in your lives, and I have long admired your extraordinary resilience and spirit.
"At this most difficult and heartbreaking of times, my wife and I send our deepest possible sympathy to all those who have suffered the profound tragedy of losing their loved ones, their homes and their precious livelihoods."
