6.8 magnitude quake with 35 miles deep strikes northeast India, Bangladesh

The U.S. Geological Survey said a 6.8 magnitude quake with 57 km (35 miles) deep on Monday struck 29 km (18 miles) west of Imphal, capital of India’s Manipur state, which borders Myanmar.

It said on Monday in Imphal (India) that the earthquake killed at least 11 people and injuring nearly 200.
It said the pre-dawn quake killed six people in India and five in neighbouring Bangladesh, while shockwaves were felt in the Himalayan nation of Nepal and as far away as the Myanmar city of Yangon, about 1,175 km (730 miles) to the south.
It said the quake struck while many people were asleep, and roofs and staircases of some buildings collapsed in Imphal, a city of about 270,000 people.

The academics at the department of seismological research at Manipur University, said it was the most powerful earthquake to hit the state since 1957.
Joy Thanglian, an official of state energy firm Bharat Petroleum, said it was like being tossed around in a frying pan.

Police and hospitals in Imphal said the death toll had reached six with 100 people injured, 33 of them seriously.
Officials in Bangladesh added that as well as the five people died of heart attacks as they fled buildings, about 90 people were injured.

The officials said all efforts to reach remote areas where people may be trapped have been hampered by severed power lines and telecommunication links.

Report said 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.
Kiren Rijiju, Junior Home Affairs Minister, said government two teams from the National Disaster Response Force had arrived to help with the rescue.

The rescue operations are about to start on a war footing.’’
Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, said he was in touch with authorities in the northeast.
Manipur is one of seven north eastern provinces joined to the rest of the India by a thin strip of territory arching above Bangladesh. (Reuters/NAN)