6.8 Magnitude Earthquake Shook Indians

6.8 Magnitude Earthquake Shook Indians

New Delhi - A strong earthquake hit northeastern India with a magnitude of 6.8 Sunday near the Nepal border killing at least 4 people in India while 5 Nepalese were also killed totaling to 9. Several people were badly injured and some infrastructures and buildings were destroyed in the state of Sikkim. Two aftershocks were triggered with magnitudes of 6.1 and 5.3 as recorded by Indian seismologists.

R.S. Dattatreyan, official at the Indian Seismology Department, has warned the public of more possible aftershocks.  A news update from a regional Indian TV station reported several buildings and houses collapsed in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim state. Several injured people were rushed to nearby hospitals. Several roads were blocked thus making it hard for the rescue teams to search for people trapped inside ruins and collapsed buildings.

Death toll might increase as information from affected remote areas are still being gathered. Sikkim state is prone to landslide and many high rise buildings and skyscrapers have sprouted in the region following years of economic development. Communication lines are currently down as of the moment giving authorities hard time to get a glimpse of the real picture of the extent of the damage. There were already reports of landslides in West Bengal and Sikkim state following the strong tremor.

Posted by George Daniels on Monday September 19 2011, 3:27 AM EDT. Ref: Google. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0