63 Killed as Quake Hits Vast Himalayan Region
The death toll from a 6.9-magnitude quake that hit the India-Nepal border has risen to 63, officials said Monday, with much of the affected area cut off by landslides.
At least 35 people were killed in India's northeastern state of Sikkim in Sunday's quake, Home Secretary R.K. Singh told a press briefing in New Delhi, while building collapses and landslides claimed another 13 lives in adjoining Indian states.
The heavy rains and low cloud grounded helicopter flights in the area, and Indian relief and rescue teams trying to access the Sikkim state capital, Gangtok, were blocked by landslides on the only viable highway.
"Our rescue teams are stuck in that corridor," said National Disaster Response Force spokesman Surendra Ahlawat. "The conditions are terrible, but road crews are doing their best."
More than 5,000 army troops were deployed in the area to try and restore road links with Gangtok and further north towards the epicenter.
"The biggest challenge now is to get the rescue teams to the affected areas," said Sikkim Information Minister C.B. Karki.
"There's a good chance the toll could rise as rescue teams begin to access the more remote areas," said G. Anandan, chief of the central emergency control room in Gangtok.
Tremors were felt more than 1,000 kilometers away in New Delhi to the west, and in Bangladesh to the east.
In Nepal, police said a motorcyclist and his eight-year-old daughter were among three killed when a wall crumbled at the British embassy compound in the capital Kathmandu, 270 kilometers west of the epicenter.
Three others were killed in separate incidents in eastern Nepal.
A budget debate in Nepal's parliament stopped for 15 minutes when lawmakers leapt to their feet and fled the chamber as the entire building shook.
More than 100 people were injured by mudslides, falling debris and collapsing buildings in Gangtok, where thousands spent the night in the streets after two large aftershocks sparked further panic.
"People are still very worried and tense. Everything is shut down and nearly everyone is still out in the street because they're scared of another quake," said Gangtok resident Indira Singh.
The shockwaves downed power lines, blacking out most of Sikkim and further hampering rescue efforts as telephone land lines were interrupted and panicked mobile users swamped local networks.
The quake was felt across a wide region including the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan after it struck at about 6:10pm (12:40 GMT) on Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Its epicenter was just over 60 kilometers northwest of Gangtok, at a relatively shallow depth of 19.7 kilometres.
The Press Trust of India said that police rescued 15 foreign tourists in the north of Sikkim, a popular destination for trekkers.
Nine other people died in India, including one killed in a stampede by panicked residents in Bihar state and four who were buried when a house fell down near Darjeeling.
Police said eight people were killed in Nepal, and China's official Xinhua news agency reported seven dead in southern Tibet.
Nepalese police spokesman Binod Singh said 68 people had been injured in the Kathmandu Valley, while hundreds of homes were damaged in eastern Nepal.
Strong tremors were felt in Guwahati, the main city in India's Assam state, some 600 kilometers away, sending people running into the streets.
"Our apartment block was literally swaying," said housewife Anamika Das.
India's seven northeastern states, joined to the rest of the country by a narrow sliver of land known as the "chicken's neck," are located in an area of frequent seismic activity.
The most recent deadly earthquake in India, with a magnitude of 6.7, struck the western state of Gujarat in 2001, killing more than 20,000 people.
Source: Agence France Presse
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