Himalayan quake death toll passes 100

Sep 21, 2011, 11:51 GMT

New Delhi - The number of dead in an earthquake in the Himalayan region passed 100 Wednesday as rescue workers braved landslides and heavy rain in their search for survivors.

At least 68 people were killed in the north-eastern Indian state of Sikkim, the epicentre of Sunday's 6.8-magnitude quake, Chief Minister Pawan Chamling said in state capital Gangtok.

A total of 19 were reported killed in the rest of India while nine had died in Nepal, seven in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and one person in Bhutan.

Chamling said the authorities were still trying to establish contact with nine remote villages in northern Sikkim which had been completely cut off by landslides.

At least 300 injured people were being treated in hospitals in the state, Chamling said.

The Teesta Urja Company, which is building a hydroelectric power plant in northern Sikkim, said 12 of its workers were killed in the earthquake, the Times of India newspaper reported online.

At Mangan, 60 kilometres north of Gangtok, 22 bodies were found in the debris of collapsed houses, officials said.

An official at the police control room in Gangtok said the search for survivors in the debris of collapsed houses and landslides and evacuation of stranded villagers with the help of helicopters was going on.

Sikkim police chief Jasbir Singh said the toll was expected to rise as rescue teams were trying to reach thousands of people still trapped as many roads were blocked by landslides.

'Heavy casualties are feared in those areas,' Singh was quoted as saying by NDTV news channel.

At least 35 tourists, including two from Norway had been airlifted from Lachung village about 125 kilometres north of Gangtok.

Chamling said it would take months to clear and repair roads and bridges, rebuild houses and restore damaged water and electricity supply lines.

At least 2,000 houses were destroyed and 100,000 damaged, Chamling said.

Thousands of people were being housed in temporary shelters while others preferred to spend the past couple of nights in the open braving inclement weather rather than houses with cracked walls and roofs, NDTV news channel reported.

A constant stream of villagers from remote regions arrived in Gangtok through the day with injured relatives.

Thurba Singh Sherpa walked for nine hours to the state capital carrying his 6-year-old son who was injured when a boulder fell on the jeep he was traveling in.

Two other children in the jeep died on the spot while another two critically injured had were taken to the capital in a helicopter, Sherpa said.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of India's ruling Indian National Congress party, touched down in Gangtok in an air force helicopter and visited some of the injured in hospital. Gandhi is widely seen as the Congress party's next prime ministerial candidate.

Sikkim is located in the eastern belt of the seismically unstable Himalayan region. With a population of 607,688, according to the 2011 census, it is the least populated state in India.

At least 74,000 people died across the divided region of Kashmir during the last major earthquake in the Himalayas in 2005.