The death toll in the yesterday’s earthquake in Northern India has risen to one hundred, with at least three hundred people injured. Officials have warned that the figure would continue to climb. The earthquake, which struck yesterday, caused widespread damage in the remote Himayalan region of Chamoli.
The earthquake registered 6.8 on the Richter scale and struck at just after midnight (local time) yesterday. Of the dead, 59 people were killed in Chamoli and 32 in the adjoining Rudraprayag district. The other deaths were reported from villages scattered over the mountainous region. Fresh, smaller tremors rocked the region today as the relief operations resumed.
An extensive aerial search by the army and air force for the dead and wounded was resumed this morning at first light. The tremor was felt across Northern India, Western Nepal and southern China. Rescue officials in Uttar Pradesh said that the extent of the damage would not be known for some time, because phone lines were down and landslides in mountainous areas made transport extremely difficult. There is also the danger of rocks, loosened by the earthquake, causing more landslides.
