HOPES were fading today of finding further survivors from last Friday’s massive earthquake in Myanmar.

Rescue workers said that a woman was successfully pulled from the rubble early today, 91 hours after being buried when the building collapsed in the 7.7 magnitude quake.

The earthquake’s epicentre was near the country’s second-largest city Mandalay, and so far the military-run government has reported 2,065 people killed, more than 3,900 injured and 270 missing.

Those figures are widely expected to rise, but the earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, leaving the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.

The World Health Organisation said overall, more than 10,000 buildings are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and north-west Myanmar.

The earthquake also rocked neighbouring Thailand, causing a tower block under construction to collapse and burying many workers.

Two bodies were pulled from the rubble on Monday but dozens were still missing. Overall, there were 20 people killed and 34 injured in Bangkok, primarily at the construction site.

Thai authorities said on Monday that they are investigating why the tower block under construction in Bangkok, 800 miles away from the epicentre of the quake, collapsed when there was limited damage in the capital.

Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt visited the site as heavy equipment pulled away rubble from the 30-storey State Audit Office building in hopes of finding the 78 people still missing.

“Even one life saved is worth all the effort, so I think we have to move on, carry on,” he said.

He added that in the longer run it was important to ensure building safety in the city, where millions of people live and work in thousands of high-rise buildings.

Governor Chadchart said: “I think we need to find the root cause so at least we can learn some lessons and improve building regulations.

“In the end, we will have some results that will improve safety in Bangkok.”

Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, whose family owns one of Thailand’s largest construction conglomerates, told reporters he has ordered an investigation committee to be set up and to report the results back to him within seven days. 

He pointed to three possible factors behind the collapse: the designer, the inspectors or the builders.

“We will definitely find the true reasons as to why this building has collapsed, because it’s all scientific,” Mr Anutin said.