Quake toll rises to 40, relief operations in full swing

Gangtok, Sep 19 (PTI) The death toll in the powerful
earthquake rose to 40 with 19 and five people being killed in
Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal, seven each in Nepal
and Tibet even as rescue and relief operations were on Monday
stepped up in the affected areas.
Over a hundred people have been injured in the 6.8
magnitude tremblor which has caused extensive damage to
buildings and roads in north-east Indian state of Sikkim and
several other places.
The casualties have occurred mostly in the North
District and in towns and villages like Rangpo, Dikchu,
Singtam and Chungthang located along the course of Teesta
river, they said.
In Sikkim's capital Gangtok, power was restored this
morning. Residents had spent the night outside their houses
fearing aftershocks. At least 20 aftershocks throughout the
night had created panic in the city.
Rescue teams have been dispatched to various affected
areas this morning, the officials said. The toll in Sikkim
till last night was seven.
In eastern Indian state of West Bengal, the toll rose to
five with reports reaching capital Kolkata saying that two
deaths have occurred in Kalimpong area in Darjeeling while one
person each was killed in Siliguri and Jalpaiguri areas and
one in a tea garden in Doors.
Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported that at
least seven persons have been killed and 22 others injured in
Tibet in the quake which has caused landslides and has
disrupted traffic, power and water supplies as well as
telecommunication in Yadong County, an area 40 km away from
Sikkim.
Three people were killed at Lainchaur in Kathmandu, two
in Sunsari district, and one each in Dhankuta and
Sankhuwasabha districts in eastern Nepal, according to Home
Ministry sources in the Nepalese capital.
Many buildings in and around Gangtok have collapsed and
around 85 per cent of structures and houses have developed
cracks due to the quake that hit Sikkim and other areas last
evening, they said.
Most of the areas in north Sikkim have been cut-off from
the rest of the country as roads were blocked and
communication lines got snapped.
The Sadar police station in Gangtok was badly damaged
due to the tremor.
All BSNL telephone landlines in the city have gone dead
since last evening.
The epicentre of the quake - the biggest in two decades
- was located at Mangan and Sakyong areas, over 50 km from
Gangtok on the Sikkim-Nepal border.
In Bihar, two persons were killed in Nalanda and
Darbhanga districts, official sources said. A five-year-old
girl and a youth were the two victims, they said.
Tremors were also felt in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura,
Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Delhi.
Four teams of National Disaster Response Force have been
rushed to Sikkim and five more teams were being sent from
Kolkata, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth told reporters last
night after a meeting of top officials in Delhi convened on
the direction of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"The Prime Minister himself is monitoring the
developments connected to the quake," Seth had said.