India

Nepal earthquake shakes India: Over 20 dead, tremors felt across country

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New Delhi: Over 20 people have been killed and dozens more injured in India in a powerful earthquake that struck neighboring Nepal.

A government official in the eastern state of Bihar says at least 14 deaths were reported in seven districts that share a border with Nepal. At least 35 other people were injured in Saturday’s magnitude-7.8 quake.

The official, Vyasji, who goes by one name and heads the state’s disaster management department, says vacations for all government doctors have been canceled to ensure that anyone injured gets adequate medical care.

Yogeshwar Misra, a government official in Uttar Pradesh state, says at least six deaths were reported there from house collapses triggered by the quake. Thirty other people were injured in the state
New Delhi

High intensity quake shook the national capital and adjoining areas prompting people to rush out of offices and homes and leading to restriction of metro services. However, no loss of life or property damage was reported in any part of the city.

According to a senior Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) official, services were not suspended but were put on restricted mode by slowing the speed of the metro trains, causing a little delay in the services.

The DMRC claimed that so far they have not received any reports of damage or crack in the metro line. We will carry out inspection to check if earthquake caused any damage to the property, the official said.

According to a senior government official, all emergency support functionaries including police, civic agencies, hospitals and fire services have been alerted.

Civil defence volunteers have been alerted and instructed to do patrolling in their areas, the official said. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed the people to maintain calm.

Bihar

Two persons were injured in Samastipur and Bhagalpur districts respectively, prompting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to cut short his visit to New Delhi. Kumar spoke to Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, state police chief P K Thakur and directed them to alert people particularly of areas bordering Nepal.

The DGP said that in deference of the CM’s direction, all police heads of the districts have been directed to send alerts to police stations on wireless and assess the extent of damage.

Speaker of Bihar Assembly Uday Narayan Choudhary and Minister Shyam Rajak ran out in the open during a programme at Kurji Holy Hospital in the state capital.

Kochi

Low intensity tremor was also felt in some parts of Kochi, triggering panic among people residing in high rise buildings, officials said.

Officials said experts in the Seismology Department are assessing whether it was an after effect of the high-intensity quake that rocked Delhi and many parts of East and North India.

“According to information, it was a low intensity earthquake of magnitude less than three on the Richter scale. Initial inputs say that mild tremors were felt some parts of Kochi city,” Ernakulam Additional District Magistrate B Ramachandran said.

Odisha

Tremors were felt in several parts of Odisha triggering panic among the people.

The intensity in Odisha was about two MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale, about 875 km north-north-west of Bhubaneswar, MeT officials said.

Apart from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, the tremor was felt in Cuttack, Balasore, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Mayurbhanj, Berhampur, Khurda and Sambalpur, according to reports reaching here.

People in high-rise buildings in the state capital and other places were seen moving out as they noticed furniture and ceiling fans were swaying.

Sikkim

A series of minor landslides have been reported from various places in the state they said, but there was no report of any loss of life so far, officials said.

Sikkim has been experiencing minor jolts continuously for the past three days, met department said.

Manipur

The tremor, which shook the East and other parts of India, was also felt in Manipur also.

There was no report of casualties or damage to property in the quake, a state official said. The quake was felt at 11:40 am.

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