India’s Meteorological Department said the epicenter of the quake was in the Tamenglong region of Manipur.
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The quake with its epicentre in Manipur’s Tamenglong district at 4.35 a.m. was felt in parts of Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura, said one of its official. There have been no casualties reported on the Myanmar side of the border.
Manipur’s Health Commissioner PK Singh said authorities were identifying spaces where temporary health facilities could be set up in case of stronger aftershocks, although there were no immediate reports of serious damage to hospitals. “I appeal to people not to believe in them”, he told reporters.
All the seven deaths in Manipur were reported from Jiribam area of Imphal West district, state officials said.
Dr Y Mohen Singh, the secretary of the Manipur state branch of the Indian Red Cross Society in Imphal, close to the epicentre, helped evacuate injured people from a market where five or six buildings were damaged.
The government said two teams from the National Disaster Response Force had arrived to help with the rescue.
There were similar scenes in the northeast Indian city of Guwahati, the main commercial city of the mineral-rich state of Assam, where an AFP correspondent said residents were “in a state of shock” after being woken by the shaking.
The Indian government is coordinating its response with chief ministers in the northeastern states, according to the prime minister’s office. Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi described it as the worst natural disaster to hit the State and announced a compensation of Rs. 5 lakh for the deceased.
It said on Monday in Imphal (India) that the natural disaster killed at least 11 people and injuring almost 200.
Rescue workers in Imphal used hand-held drilling machines to clear rubble from the ruins of a six-storey building under construction, the site of the heaviest damage in the city.
People ran out of their houses in panic, particularly those living in high-rise building, when they felt the jolt.
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According to The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Maj. More than 1,500 people died in the quake, which had a magnitude of 7.6, and its disastrous aftermath of landslides and floods.
