A powerful earthquake struck north-eastern India before dawn on Monday (January 4), killing at least four people and injuring nearly 100, though the toll was expected to rise, with rescue efforts hampered by severed power supplies and telecommunication links.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake of magnitude 6.8 was 57 km (35 miles) deep and struck 29 km (18 miles) west of Imphal, the capital of the Indian state of Manipur bordering Myanmar.
“This morning an earthquake struck Manipur at 4:35 am (2305 GMT on Sunday January 3). According to our national network, the earthquake measured 6.7 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was at the Manipur-Assam border, which is 30-35 kilometers northwest of Imphal,” said seismologist P.R. Vaid.
The quake hit while many residents were asleep in the city of about 270,000 people.
Police and hospitals in Imphal said the casualty toll had reached four dead and nearly 100 injured.
Search teams were trying to find workers feared to have been buried beneath the rubble of a building that had been under construction. They were unsure how many might be trapped.
Residents of Imphal said people fled their homes and that power and telecoms links were down in the remote region. Some lashed out at what they called the authorities’ slow response, saying that although the army had begun to clear some debris, it appeared to be short on heavy equipment.
Portions of walls, staircase and roofs in some buildings collapsed in Imphal. People rushed out of their homes and gathered in the streets. In hospitals, paramedics attended to the injured.
Similar scenes were seen in Siliguri, West Bengal state.
“Everybody has come out into the open. Everyone who has two to three-storey houses is here and everybody is scared now,” said resident Babu Lal.
Some volunteers were helping out in hospitals.
“I was at home when the earthquake struck and soon after, I came here to help with treating the injured,” said a volunteering paramedic, Tutul Longdeb.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was in touch with authorities in the northeast. Rescue teams from Guwahati, in neighbouring Assam, were scrambling to reach Imphal.
People in Bangladesh and the Himalayan nation of Nepal ran from their homes, and the quake was also felt as far away as the Myanmar city of Yangon, about 1,176 km (730 miles) to the south, residents said.
An official at Myanmar’s meteorological department in Naypyidaw, the capital, said there were no reports of damage or casualties on the Myanmar side of the border. (Reuters)
