Rescuers struggle in quake-hit Myanmar

---

TARLAY, (Myanmar), Mar 27 (AFP): Rescue teams struggled Sunday to reach those affected by a powerful earthquake that struck Myanmar's east three days ago, as aid workers said they feared the death toll will rise. Officials say 75 people were killed by the 6.8 magnitude quake that hit near the borders with Thailand and Laos late Thursday, reducing homes and government buildings to rubble and causing hardship for thousands of people. "As we learn more it appears that the casualty figures will continue to increase," an aid worker in the country told AFP, asking not to be named. Tachileik, a town on the Thai-Myanmar border, and nearby Tarlay and Mong Lin in Myanmar's Shan state appear to have been most severely affected by the quake, which was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. "We don't know how many people were affected yet. We are still trying to get the figures," a Myanmar official said Sunday. "Transportation is difficult. We still haven't reached some areas, we still don't know what happened to them and we don't know how many people are living in these mountainous areas," he said. An unnamed Red Cross worker in Tachileik said according to the Irrawaddy exile news group that at least 150 people had been killed, but the Myanmar official said there was no confirmed increase from Friday's toll of 74. One woman was also killed in Thailand. The charity World Vision said it believes around 15,000 people may have been affected in the worst-hit areas.