At least eight people were killed and scores injured Monday when a strong 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck northeast India, sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets even hundreds of kilometers away in Bangladesh.
Five were killed in India, the government said, while three people died in Bangladesh after suffering strokes or heart attacks following the early-morning quake.
Nearly 60 victims were being treated for their injuries in hospitals in Bangladesh, where the earthquake triggered panic on the streets of major cities.
Anurag Gupta of India’s National Disaster Management Authority said buildings had been damaged in Imphal, capital of Manipur state where the quake was centered.
“Five people are confirmed dead and 33 have been injured in Imphal. A six-storey building in the capital was partially damaged and some small structures have also developed cracks,” he told AFP.
An official at one of the main hospitals in Imphal however said more than 50 people had been admitted since the quake with head injuries and limb fractures.
The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at 4:35 am (2305 GMT Sunday) 29 kilometers west-northwest of Imphal.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said buildings had collapsed near the epicenter and the electricity supply had been cut in parts of Manipur, which borders Myanmar and has a long history of separatist unrest.
The tremors were felt as far away as Kolkata some 600 kilometers distant in the Indian state of West Bengal, where buildings shook.
“Many people were seen coming out of their homes in panic,” said local resident Rabin Dev.
India’s seven northeastern states, joined to the rest of the country by a narrow sliver of land, are located in an area of frequent seismic activity.
In 1950, dozens of villages were swallowed in a string of disasters generated by a powerful earthquake whose epicentre was in Tibet but which caused the greatest destruction to India’s Assam state.
More than 1,500 people died in the quake, which had a magnitude of 7.6, and its disastrous aftermath of landslides and floods.
There were no immediate reports of casualties on the Myanmar side of the border, a remote and sparsely populated area that suffered widespread damage this summer from landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains.
The USGS has raised its assessment alert for casualties and damage to orange, meaning there is a 33% chance of between 100 and 1,000 fatalities.