Myanmar's military rulers have kept journalists out since the devastating earthquake, so CBS News' partners at the BBC went undercover to reveal the scale of the disaster.

A 7.7 magnitude earthquake rattled much of Southeast Asia on Friday, flattening skyscrapers and leaving more than 1,000 people dead from Myanmar to Thailand.

As of Thursday, the death toll across the country from the earthquake has risen to 3,145, with 4,589 others injured and 221 missing, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the Myanmar Radio and Television.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is in the throes of a prolonged and bloody civil war, which is already responsible for a massive humanitarian crisis.

The head of Myanmar’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, told a forum for relief donations in Naypyitaw that 2,719 people have now been found dead, with 4,521 others injured and 441 missing, Myanmar’s state MRTV television reported.

The 7.7 magnitude quake hit Friday, with the epicenter near Myanmar’s second-largest city of Mandalay. It damaged the city’s airport, buckled roads and collapsed hundreds of buildings along a wide swath down the country’s center.

The magnitude 7.7 quake Friday rocked an impoverished Southeast Asian nation already beleaguered by years of civil war.

Aid groups in the worst-hit areas of Myanmar said there was an urgent need for shelter, food and water after an earthquake that killed more than 2,700 people.

The military government suggested the numbers could still rise, saying “detailed figures are still being collected.”