India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, wrote on Twitter that he is in touch with authorities in the affected area – though some have criticised the government’s response.
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The quake occurred at 4.35 am. He also had a separate tele-conference with Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.
Modi also spoke to home minister Rajnath Singh, who is visiting Assam and asked him to oversee the situation. A 6.7 magnitude natural disaster hit India’s remote northeast region before dawn on Monday.
Kiren Rijiju, union minister of state for home affairs, visited areas in Manipur that were affected by Monday’s natural disaster. Authorities were still assessing the situation, Gaikhangam told reporters.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team from Guwahati, which was engaged in rescue in Tamenglong district and Imphal besides other parts of state, was clearing debris and searching if anyone was still trapped, officials said.
As per the reports received from Manipur government, 8 people lost their lives and 88 were injured due to quake, an official statement said. Several building in Imphal, including the market complex, and roads developed cracks while walls of some school buildings gave way, officils said.
The area is dotted with small houses. “If you appear to be nearby, we will send you a notification to access Safety Check so you can share that you are safe and see that people you care about are safe as well”, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a post. There are few tall buildings in the region, although a newly constructed six-story building collapsed in Imphal, the police control room said.
India’s Meteorological Department said the epicentre was in the Tamenglong region of Manipur.
As many as 88 people were reported injured in the quake, which was was felt in states such as Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand as well as neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Rescue teams from Guwahati, in neighboring Assam, were scrambling to reach Imphal.
He said that though a bridge in the western part of the district over the river has been damaged, but connectivity was not a major problem with Imphal, located 146 km from district headquarter.
Residents said people fled from their homes, and power and telecoms links were down in the remote region.
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People in Bangladesh and Nepal ran from their homes, and the quake was also felt as far away as the Myanmar capital Yangon, about 1,176 kms (730 miles) to the south, residents said. “Thought death and destruction was imminent”, said Imphal resident, Ram Wangkheirakpam.
