Myanmar’s ruling military junta has been accused of blocking the delivery of aid to victims of Friday’s earthquake, which killed at least 2,700 people and devastated the country.

Locals and humanitarian groups said recovery efforts had been hampered by the regime setting up military checkpoints and requiring relief workers to gain official permission to enter areas where aid was most needed.

The situation is particularly acute in Sagaing, a city close to the quake’s epicentre that has been at the frontline of the country’s four-year-long civil war.

As a stronghold of opposition support, the Sagaing region has borne the brunt of junta airstrikes and contained roughly one million internally displaced people – more than any other area of Myanmar – even before the tremor hit.

Dr Min, the founder of an organisation responding in Sagaing and Mandalay, said: “Sagaing [has] almost completely collapsed, it is like a ghost city.”

“When you drive through you are getting the smell of the dead bodies. It means not enough rescue is happening,” Dr Min said, amid reports that rescuers were running out of body bags.