The United Nations humanitarian affairs chief says an estimated 17 million people in Myanmar have been affected by last month's massive earthquake. He says they need international aid urgently.

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck central Myanmar on March 28.

The Myanmar military, which virtually rules the Southeast Asian country, says at least 3,455 people have been killed, and 214 others remain missing beneath the rubble.

Tom Fletcher, the chief of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, spoke to NHK on Saturday after he visited Myanmar's second- largest city of Mandalay, and the capital Naypyitaw.

Fletcher said: "People need shelter urgently. They need tents with the monsoon coming, they need water."

He noted that one group he saw had already been displaced by being forced to flee from fighting between the military and pro-democracy opposition forces.

He said that they have been through enormous amounts of trauma, and the place to which they took refuge is now destroyed by the earthquake.

He appealed for international support for the quake survivors, saying "we are massively underfunded compared to what we need to really reach as many people as possible."

Meanwhile, a Japanese medical team began to provide treatment at a makeshift clinic in Mandalay on Friday.

A staff member says about 120 people, including those who sustained injuries, visited the clinic for two days through Saturday.

The team is cooperating with a local hospital to provide care to people who need a surgery for injuries, such as broken bones.