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The collapse of the Sky Villa complex in the Myanmar city of Mandalay buried an unknown number of people amid the earthquake on Friday that killed more than 2,700.
April 1, 2025, 7:16 a.m. ET
It was marketed as a place with an “earthquake-resistant foundation.” The 12-story Sky Villa Condominium complex featured the largest rooftop bar in the central Myanmar city of Mandalay and a gym with state-of-the-art equipment.
Now it is a tomb.
Sky Villa, which was built in 2017, was one of the hardest-hit sites in the devastating earthquake on Friday that killed 2,719 people. Until last week, it stood as a symbol of this city’s rapid urbanization despite a four-year civil war.
When the earthquake ravaged Myanmar, five stories of the condominium slid underground. On Tuesday, the air reeked of decaying corpses, the stench made worse by the 100-degree heat, as desperate family members circled the ruins of the building looking for loved ones.
“Please speed up!” shouted Sai Myo Tun, who was searching for his sister, to volunteers in yellow hard hats and Chinese rescue workers scrambling to untangle the mound of concrete, debris, and steel. “My sister can still be alive if you speed up.”
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Mr. Sai Myo Tun said his sister, who is three months pregnant, and her husband were trapped under the building. He said his sister had bought an apartment in Sky Villa last year. It is not known how many other people may be under the ruins.
