Mandalay: A woman was rescued from the ruins of a collapsed apartment block in Mandalay, and a strong earthquake struck Myanmar, leaving dozens of places worried about being trapped under the debris.

Applause rang out when 30-year-old Phyu Lay Khaing was taken out of Sky Villa Condominium by rescuers and carefully removed from the rubble on the stretcher.

Her husband, Ye Aung, had been anxiously waiting for the news, and she hugged her when the stretcher was lifted.

“In the beginning, I don’t think she’s still alive,” Ye Aung told AFP, waiting for his wife to come out of the fragments.

“I’m glad I’ve heard good news,” the trader said, who has two sons with his wife, William, eight, and Ethan, five.

As the ambulance drove to the hospital, he saw Ye Aung by grabbing his wife’s hand through the window.

A Red Cross official told AFP earlier that more than 90 people may be trapped under the remains of the apartment block.

A light-colored magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck northwest of Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed by a magnitude 6.7 aftershocks in minutes.

The tremor destroyed buildings, demolished bridges and squeezed roads on roads across vast areas of Myanmar, seeing huge damage in Mandalay, the country’s second largest city with residences of more than 1.7 million people.