Headlines
Over 900 dead as massive quake ravages Nepal, rocks India
Kathmandu/New Delhi, April 25
Over 900 people
were killed and many more injured when a massive earthquake -- lasting
about 20 seconds -- and several strong aftershocks caused widespread
devastation in Nepal. India too was affected.
In Nepal, buildings
came crashing down, roads cracked, telephone connectivity snapped and
hospitals grappled with a large number of injured who were extricated
from the rubble after the country was hit by the temblor at 11.41 a.m.
India time. The epicentre of the quake was Nepal's Lamjung district,
some 75 km northwest of capital Kathmandu. As many as 15 aftershocks
were felt.
Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, a senior home ministry official in Nepal, told IANS that 688 people were dead.
Indian
Home Secretary L.C. Goel told the media that 34 people were killed in
India. There were 23 dead in Bihar, three were killed in West Bengal
while eight people died in Uttar Pradesh.
The tremors were felt across India, right from Srinagar to Kochi, and Jaipur to Guwahati.
Kathmandu,
which is a much sought after tourist destination, bore the brunt of the
devastation. People watched in disbelief as a number of its old
buidings, including the Dharahara - a nine-storey 19th-century tower -
collapsed. There was also damage to the walls surrounding Nepal's royal
palace.
The revered Pashupatinath temple did not appear to have suffered any major damage.
Unconfirmed
reports said that eight mountaineers were killed at the Mount Everest
Base Camp when the temblor triggered an avalanche.
The earth heaved and panic-stricken people rushed out of their homes and offices.
IANS correspondent Anil Giri, who is based in Kathmandu, spoke of the horror.
He
said over 1,000 buildings in Kathmandu have been destroyed, including
historical structures. Thousands of people were out in the open.
Electricity has been cut-off and wi-fi services are down. Hospitals are
packed with the injured and the army is out in full force to help rescue
people.
Kathmandu is a warren of tightly packed houses and
narrow streets and these were filled with wailing people who panicked
further as aftershocks rocked the area.
A young woman, who
clutched a blood soaked handkerchief to her forehead, cried and said
that she was worried about her family. She said that she did not get the
time to safely escape from her home which came crashing down. "I was
terrified," she said at a hospital here.
A former Nepal minister said there had been "massive damage" at the epicentre Lamjung.
Rajendra
Mahto, Sadbhavana Party chief, told IANS that it was difficult to
estimate the loss so soon after the disaster but Kathmandu and its
neighbourhood had suffered a lot of damage.
"We will need support
from neighbours, especially India, and international agencies...," said
Mahto, who was a member of the first Constituent Assembly and a
minister in several administrations.
The Kathmandu airport was shut, leading to cancellation of flights from India to Nepal. An Indigo flight had to return to Delhi.
The daughter of an employee of the Indian embassy was killed when a building in the embassy complex in Kathmandu collapsed.
Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi promptly directed dispatch of relief and
rescue teams, including medical help to Nepal, as well as to the
affected areas in India.
He chaired a high-level meeting to review the situation.
Modi
spoke to Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav and Prime Minister Sushil
Koirala, who was abroad, and assured all assistance. He also spoke to
the chief ministers of affected states in India like Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim and Madhya Pradesh.
A meeting of the
Nepal cabinet was held in the evening. It termed the earthquake a
national crisis and sought international help.
India sent two
plane loads of relief material and rescue personnel to Nepal. The planes
carried 45 rescue personnel and some sniffer dogs to help in rescue
operations.
An air force spokesperson said that the Kathmandu
airport runway was intact and aircraft could land there. All civilian
flights have been cancelled.
Images showed that the quake had
left the people of Nepal stunned. Besides capital Kathmandu and
Besisahar in Lamjung, the cities which were affected include Bharatpur,
Pokhara and Kirtipur.
Indian Ambassador Ranjit Rae told IANS that "the old towns in the Kathmandu Valley have been affected in the earthquake".
Reports
from across north India said people feared for their lives. Some of
them began to pray and tried to get as far away as possible from
buildings. Most ran to open grounds. Many of the high-rises saw people
rush out in large numbers.
"Suddenly people started saying their
heads were reeling, fans were shaking. Tables and chairs were shaking.
As realisation dawned that it was an earthquake, people made a dash for
the exit," said K. Chakraborty, an employee of a nationalised bank in
Kolkata.
In Kochi, an employee said: "Our office is on the
seventh floor and close to 12 noon, I felt my pen moving on the table. I
felt my chair was moving. I got up and saw my colleagues running."
(Anil Giri can be contacted at [email protected] and Aroonim Bhuyan at [email protected])