NewLife

INDIA: A powerful earthquake shook north-eastern India and Nepal, several dead

An earthquake of magnitude 6.9 took place Sunday in Sikkim, North Eastern State of India located in a mountainous region and killed at least nineteen people dead, including five in Nepal, a neighboring country also struck by the shaking.

According to the American Institute of Geophysics USGS, the earthquake occurred at 6:10 p.m. local time (24:40 GMT) in the small Himalayan state of Sikkim, bordering Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan.

Its epicenter was located about 60 km northwest of the capital of Sikkim, Gangtok, which was plunged into darkness due to power failure running the earthquake.

"There is no electricity. Everybody is out in the streets," said the CNN-IBN CKDahal, a resident of Gangtok.

"We all ran out of our homes, some have jumped out the window. We can see that the buildings were cracked," he added.

The main political leader of Sikkim, Karma Gyatso, said: "It was a very strong earthquake.We have alerted the armed forces and paramilitaries. "

Karma Gyatso told AFP that five people were killed and 60 injured in Gangtok and its surroundings due to landslides, collapsing buildings and falling debris.

"We have information on dozens of houses collapsed and roads linking many towns were cut off by landslides," he said.

Nine other people were killed across India, including one in a stampede as panicked residents rushed out into a city of Bihar State (East), and four who were buried under the rubble of their home near Darjeeling.

According to PTI, the police rescued 15 foreign tourists in northern Sikkim, but their nationality was not specified.

A thousand prisoners from the prison of Jalpaiguri (West Bengal), damaged by the earthquake, were escorted by guards outside their cells.

The earthquake was also felt in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Indian cities of Guwahati, Calcutta and the federal capital New Delhi.

In Nepal, at least five people died, police said, including at least three in Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital, located 270 km from the epicenter.

"At least three people were killed when a wall in Kathmandu of the Embassy of Great Britain collapsed because of the earthquake, and two others were killed in eastern Nepal", said the AFP Binod Singh, spokesman for the National Police.

In Sikkim, the Indian state the least populated, the land telephone lines were interrupted in Gangtok and mobile phone networks were quickly overwhelmed, which made it difficult communications with the affected area.

Manish Sharma, a doctor who was attending a conference in Gangtok, told television channel NDTV that information all the guests had jumped out the window from the first shock.

In New Delhi, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh convened an emergency meeting with the Managing Authority of national disasters. The head of his cabinet, Ajit Seth, said rescue teams from neighboring Indian states were sent to Sikkim.

"The teams will land at night.Army helicopters will also be sent as reinforcements to ensure the supply, "he said.

Powerful tremors were also felt in Guwahati, the main town in the neighboring state of Assam, located about 600 km from the epicenter.

In Bhutan, the tremors were felt in the capital Thimphu.