(REUTERS) — Indian media reported at least 17 people were killed in India on Saturday (April 25) when an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit neighboring Nepal.
The Nepal death toll from the powerful earthquake rose to 688, a senior home ministry official told Reuters at around 1130gmt, with 181 people killed in the capital Kathmandu.
The figure was expected to rise rapidly.
It was the worst quake to hit the impoverished Himalayan nation in 81 years and caused damage in neighbouring Indian states, China and Bangladesh. The quake was shallow, intensifying the amount of energy released over a relatively small area.
Tremors were felt as far as in India’s capital New Delhi and other northern and eastern cities inIndia where people ran out of their offices and houses.
Indian media reports said at least 17 people died in the Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengalstates.
But in early reports Rajiv Pratap Rudy, a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi cabinet, said he had received confirmation of only three deaths in Bihar.
“We received a call from the Prime Minister, he wanted to know the situation in Bihar and as we found out and as I briefed the prime minister that power has been switched off in north Bihar for safety reasons and I had a word with Power Secretary, Pratyaya Amrit in Bihar he reported that Sitamarhi has reported three deaths, we need to confirm it further. Bitiya has been badly affected. Raxaul has been badly affected. Purnia has also been partially affected which was already affected by cyclone,” said Rajiv Pratap Rudy in-charge of earthquake damage assessment.
Buildings were damaged in Siliguri city of eastern West Bengal state, in Agra city and Kushinagardistrict of northern Uttar Pradesh state and patients were rushed out of hospitals.
“Impact is there in Bihar and may be (in) other parts of the country as well but the prime minister himself is monitoring, minute to minute, the situation and at 3 pm (0930GMT) today the Prime Minister is holding an emergency crisis management meet (in) which he will take the assessment of the earthquake impact,” Rudy said.
Rudy added that Prime Minister Modi was personally monitoring the situation and will hold an emergency meeting later in the day to take stock of the situation.
He added that he will himself be headed to Bihar later in the day.
The quake struck east of Pokhara, in Nepal, causing buildings in the capital Kathmandu to collapse, injuring many and leaving a pall of dust over the city, witnesses said.
Landlines and mobile networks are down in eastern Bihar state and officials are using wireless to communicate.
Modi tweeted: “We are in the process of finding more information and are working to reach out to those affected, both at home and in Nepal.”
The number of casualties is expected to rise significantly as Kathmandu’s decrepit buildings, crisscrossed by narrow alleys, are home to large families.
A 1934 quake of magnitude 8.3 in the impoverished Himalayan nation killed over 8,500 people