Aftershock scares Mandalay residents two days before March 28 earthquake anniversary

The regime’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) reported on Thursday that a 4.3 magnitude earthquake hit two miles (3.2 km) east of Mandalay’s Maharaungmyay Township on March 26.

A Mandalay resident shared on social media that families fled out onto the street during the tremor on March 26 – two days before the first anniversary of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck on March 28, 2025.

The DMH recorded the tremor as the 291st aftershock since the March 28 earthquake, which killed at least 4,477 people nationwide, according to DVB data.

The March 28 earthquake hit central Myanmar with its epicenter in Sagaing Region. Mandalay, Bago, Magway, Naypyidaw and southern Shan were five of the six hardest hit regions.

Mandalay Region recorded the highest death toll at 2,916. The earthquake was felt as far away as Thailand and Vietnam.

Twelve Myanmar construction workers died at the State Audit Office building in the Thai capital Bangkok, which collapsed during the earthquake on March 28.

Thai media reported that the Italian-Thai Development and China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group (ITD-CREC) Joint Venture, which was the contractor, presented one million THB ($27,000 USD) in compensation to each of the 12 families on March 2.

The ITD-CREC also paid 200,000 THB ($5,400 USD) to each of an additional seven injured Myanmar workers.

In Mandalay, the Sky Villa condominium in Aungmyaythazan Township, located three miles (4.8 km) northeast of Maharaungmyay, also collapsed during the earthquake on March 28.

Myanmar’s Fire Services Department stated that it rescued a total of 52 survivors and recovered the bodies of 207 others from the rubble during search-and-rescue operations up to Sept. 15, 2025.

The managing director of N.T.L. Construction Company – the alleged contractor of the Sky Villa condo – was arrested and charged by police under Section 304-A for criminal negligence in Mandalay’s Aungmyaythazan on Feb. 10.

Naing Tun Lin is now being asked to compensate tenants, who survived the collapse of the Sky Villa condo, with the amount of each unit. Tenants told DVB that condos at Sky Villa were priced at 650 million MMK ($160,000 USD).

The regime in Naypyidaw has documented the destruction caused by the March 28 earthquake at 48,834 houses, 3,094 monasteries and nunneries, 2,045 schools, 2,171 offices and buildings, 148 bridges, and 5,275 pagodas.

Muslims in Mandalay told DVB that they still haven’t received permission to rebuild 152 mosques – either damaged or destroyed on March 28 – from the regime’s Mandalay City Development Committee (MCDC).

The MCDC told the Muslim community that it will only recognise those located on “religious grounds” registered with the regime’s General Administration Department (GAD).

“We’ve completed demolition of 33 damaged mosques with the mayor’s approval,” an imam in Mandalay told DVB on the condition of anonymity.

He added that another 15 mosques in Naypyidaw, eight in Bago Region, six in Sagaing Region, and two in southern Shan State, were either damaged or destroyed by the quake on March 28.