11 dead as northeast India rocked by quake
Print Edition
AT least 11 people were killed and nearly 200 injured yesterday when a strong 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck northeast India, sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets even hundreds of kilometers away in Bangladesh.
Six were killed in India, the government said, while five people died in Bangladesh after suffering strokes or heart attacks following the early-morning quake.
Authorities in India’s Manipur state where the quake was centered said another 100 people had been injured by the quake, which damaged buildings in the capital Imphal, a city of about 270,000 people.
Imphal resident Deepak Shijagurumayum, whose house was severely damaged, described scenes of chaos.
“Almost everyone was asleep when it struck and were thrown out of their beds,” Shijagurumayum said by phone. “People were crying and praying in the streets and in open spaces.”
The Press Trust of India news agency said buildings had collapsed near the epicenter at Tamenglong, about 30km from Imphal, and electricity supply had been cut in parts of Manipur, which borders Myanmar.
Anurag Gupta of the National Disaster Management Authority said dozens of emergency workers had fanned out across the affected area, and the situation was “under control.”
Manipur’s Health Commissioner PK Singh said authorities were identifying spaces where temporary health facilities could be set up in case of stronger aftershocks, although there were no immediate reports of major damage to hospitals.
The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at 4:35am.
Nearly 90 victims were being treated for their injuries in hospitals in Bangladesh, where the earthquake triggered panic on the streets of major cities.
One 23-year-old man died after suffering a stroke when he ran out of his house, while four others, including a farmer and a university official, died of heart attacks, police said.
One of the injured was a university student who jumped from a fourth-floor balcony and was in critical condition.
There were similar scenes in the northeast Indian city of Guwahati, the main commercial city of the mineral-rich state of Assam, where a local correspondent said residents were “in a state of shock” after being woken by the shaking.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he had spoken to local authorities in Assam about the impact of the quake.
The tremors were felt as far away 600km away in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal, where buildings shook. “Many people were seen rushing out of their homes in panic,” said local resident Rabin Dev.
India’s seven northeastern states, joined to the rest of the country by a narrow sliver of land, are located in an area of frequent seismic activity.
In 1950 dozens of villages were swallowed in a string of disasters generated by a powerful earthquake whose epicenter was in Tibet but which caused the greatest destruction to India’s Assam state.
More than 1,500 people died in the 7.6 magnitude quake, and its disastrous aftermath of landslides and floods.
There were no immediate reports of casualties yesterday on the Myanmar side of the border, a remote and sparsely populated area that suffered widespread damage this summer from landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
