Powerful earthquake nudges Nepal, Sikkim, 15 killed

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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A powerful 6.8 earthquake jolted Sikkim and several areas of northeast and neighboring Nepal on Sunday evening. It resulted in the killing of at least 15 people and injuring over 100 besides causing extensive damage to several buildings.

The epicenter of the quake – the biggest in two decades – was located at Mangan and Sakyong areas, over 50 km from Gangtok on Sikkim-Nepal border. Five persons reported to be dead in Sikkim- two at Singtham (East), two in Rishi (West) and one in Mangan (North). The government has sought Army’s aid to reach the affected area for providing help, State chief secretary Karma Gyatso told PTI in Gangtok.

Three people have been killed in Siliguri and adjacent Jalpaiuri in West Bengal while two others- a five-year-old girl in Nalanda and a youth in Darbhanga- have lost their lives in Bihar. At least five people have been reported as dead in Nepal, three of them outside the British Embassy in Kathmandu, when a high brick wall buckled. Gyatso told that several buildings developed major cracks in Sikkim. He further told that disaster management personnel have been deployed in affected areas. Immediately after getting the report, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to Sikkim chief minister, Pawan Kumar Chamling and has offered him all necessary help and support. He is bound for the cabinet secretary to call an emergency meeting of the disaster management authority.

Many tall buildings shook due to forceful earthquake jolts and developed cracks in Gangtok and Darjeeling. The window panes of many offices and houses have crushed, and thousands of people ran out to the streets in panic during the incident. Two buildings of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) destroyed in Pegong area though there was no immediate report of any casualty, a senior official said.

Communication links were disconnected due to the damages made to the mobile towers. Gangtok and several other areas had plunged in darkness following major power failures. Heavy rains and darkness had created difficulty in conducting relief operations in the night. Tremors has been felt in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, parts of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Delhi. A man in Bhagalpur district died in a stampede after the quake shook parts of Bihar. Whereas five people in Nepal, have been reported as dead.

The epicenter of the quake was located at Latitude 27.7 degree North and Longitude 88.2 degree East, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The quake which was felt for some seconds around 6:10 p.m., created panic among the people who were enjoying their holiday.

In the national capital, the tremor was felt in certain parts — the second such experience within a fortnight, after Delhiites were jolted around midnight on September 7. Delhi’s suburb Gurgaon and some other parts of the National Capital Region (NCR) experienced very mild shocks. According to a Patna report, the quake was also felt in various parts of Bihar. As soon as the people have felt the jolts, they rushed out of the buildings towards open places.

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