A moderate-to-high intensity quake rocked the Northeast of India on Monday at 4.37am, leaving at least nine people dead and over 100 injured.
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The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at 4:35 am (2305 GMT Sunday) 29 kilometres (18 miles) west-northwest of Imphal, capital of Manipur state, where dozens of buildings were damaged. According to the police in the capital, Dhaka, 60 people were hospitalized, including one student who is in critical condition after jumping from a balcony on the fourth floor.
Quoting unconfirmed reports, disaster management coordinator Sarat Das told IANS that seven people were killed in different places of Manipur and over a hundred injured in the state. There have been no casualties reported on the Myanmar side of the border. Have you been affected by what has been happening?
Singh earlier met Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh along with Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju and discussed the situation post the quake.
The quake with its epicentre at Noney in Tamenglong district of Manipur, the worst hit, occurred at a depth of 17 km below the ground. Collapsed buildings near the epicenter and electricity is cut in the area, said the agency Press Trust of India (PTI).
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he had spoken to the region’s chief ministers and federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh “on the situation arising in the wake of the earthquake”.
Almost 90 members of the National Disaster Response Force, a specialised federal force for natural disasters, have left to check on remote areas, police said.
No deaths had been reported so far in the area, but four people were injured when a wall collapsed on them, Ragui said by the telephone. Strong tremors were also felt in Kolkata and many parts of Jharkhand and Bihar.
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India’s northeast is considered the sixth major earthquake-prone belt in the world.
