Devastation in Myanmar: how the earthquake has left some areas almost completely destroyed

Even with thousands dead and entire neighbourhoods levelled, the ruling military junta in Myanmar maintains its long-term ban on international journalists entering the country.

It cited a lack of guaranteed safety that could be provided to foreign media to report on the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake that rocked the southeast Asian nation on Friday.

That may also be because it is still pursuing its campaign against rebel forces amid the destruction.

So open-source information from satellite imagery and social media is a vital tool. The picture is incomplete, but gives some sense of the true scale of damage from the quake.

Mandalay, Myanmar’s second city and just 20km from the epicentre, was hit especially hard. The largest monastery in the city had boasted a clock tower, now completely flattened.

Sky’s Data & Forensics Unit has analysed the destruction based on a combination of videos like these and satellite imagery.