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Quake Leaves 2,000 Feared Dead In India
AHMEDABAD, India, Jan 26 (News Agencies) - More than 2,000 people were feared dead Friday as the worst earthquake to hit India in 50 years pummeled the western state of Gujarat, leaving desperate rescue workers digging for survivors.
The quake, which was felt as far away as neighboring Pakistan and Nepal, cast a shadow over India's annual Republic Day celebrations and was described as a "calamity of national magnitude" by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Indian officials measured the quake's magnitude at 6.9 on the Richter scale, but foreign seismological bureaus put it at up to 7.9.
The quake struck at 8:46 am (0316 GMT) with the epicenter located 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of the medieval Gujarati town of Bhuj.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) put the death toll at more than 1,500, with around 1,000 dead in Bhuj and 300 in coastal Gujarat's main city of Ahmedabad.
Cabinet spokesman Pramod Mahajan put the number of confirmed dead in Gujarat at 651, but added the toll "could be higher," while Home Minister L.K. Advani, who flew to Ahmedabad from New Delhi put the figure at "1,000 or more."
Officials in Ahmedabad said hundreds of people are believed to be trapped in the rubble of buildings that simply folded in on themselves when the quake hit.
Seismologists recorded more than 80 aftershocks, one of which measured 5.6 on the Richter scale.
The army, air force and navy were all brought in to help relief operations, with Advani ordering two army battalions to the affected areas.
Floodlights had been set up in Ahmedabad to help relief workers using long iron crowbars and bare hands to pry away rubble from demolished buildings.
The evening temperature was around seven degrees centigrade and special army posts had been set up to distribute blankets and first aid.
"There have been some tragic incidents. Like a school which collapsed, trapping at least 30 students," said an official at the city's relief control room.
Gujarat is one of India's economic powerhouses and home to the country's largest petroleum refinery, although that facility was undamaged.
The state is earthquake-prone, but cost-cutting means that buildings are rarely designed to withstand quakes and officials said many collapses were of new high-rises.
Ten percent of buildings in Bhuj, which has a population of 150,000, had been destroyed, cabinet spokesman Mahajan said, adding that the remaining 90% had been damaged.
"All emergency assistance and action for rescue and relief operations, as well as medical treatment will be provided," Mahajan said.
An air force base in Bhuj was also badly hit.
"We are still assessing the total damage, but there has been loss of life and property," said Air Force spokesman R.K. Dhingra.
Doctor Vikram Parjhi, head of casualties at Ahmedabad's main civil hospital, said his team had received hundreds of casualties.
"Sixty-four of those were dead on arrival," Parjhi said, adding most of those treated suffered head injuries and fractures sustained during building collapses.
The quake struck barely an hour before the traditional Republic Day military parade in New Delhi.
"I am deeply pained and distressed to know about the devastating earthquake," Prime Minister Vajpayee said in a statement, and put government aid agencies on a war footing to help the victims.
Tremors were felt across a vast swathe of central and northern India, in New Delhi and Bombay, as well as Madras and Pondicherry in India's southernmost state of Tamil Nadu and in the eastern metropolis of Calcutta.
In Ahmedabad, thousands of residents, fearful of further aftershocks, opted to spend the night outdoors.
Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf offered his condolences.
The "government and people of Pakistan share the grief of the bereaved families," he said in a letter to Vajpayee.
In Pakistan at least ten people were killed as the quake rocked four major cities - Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Hyderabad.
The last major earthquake to hit India was in March 1999. Measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, it killed 100 people in the Himalayan foothills.
Friday's temblor was the largest since a quake registering 8.5 struck the northeastern state of Assam in 1950, killing 532 people.
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