At least six people were killed and over 90 injured as a strong 6.7 magnitude earthquake epicenter in Manipur today hit the northeastern region, causing damage to buildings and triggering panic. Manipur bore the brunt of the temblor which struck at 4.35 AM, jolting the people out of their sleep. Many buildings collapsed or developed cracks in Tamenglong, where the earthquake was epicenter at a depth of 17 km. All six deaths were in the state while 70 people were injured.
Power supply to Imphal city has been disrupted and some power installations have suffered damage, an official statement said after Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha held a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) this morning. Nearly 20 persons were injured in Guwahati and other areas in Assam due to the earthquake, Assam Commissioner and Secretary (Disaster Management) Pramod Kumar Tiwari said at least 30 buildings have developed cracks.
Army and Air Force have joined the relief operations and two teams of National Disaster Response Force have been rushed to Imphal while one was being sent to Assam where at least 20 people were injured. Home Minister Rajnath Singh took stock of the situation and said, the Centre will provide all necessary help and support to Manipur and other affected states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is continuously monitoring the situation in the Northeast due to the earthquake. In a series of tweets, Mr Modi said, NDRF team has been instructed to move from Guwahati to the areas affected by the earthquake. The Home Minister briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over phone about the situation and the steps taken for rescue and relief.
Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke spoke to Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and other chief ministers in the region to take stock of the situation. Rajnath Singh also said he spoke to Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, who will reach Imphal from Arunachal Pradesh to monitor the situation.
NDMA spoke to the control room/relief commissioners of all the states in the North-East- Manipur, Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Nagaland as well as West Bengal. According to the Regional Seismological Centre in Guwahati, the earthquake is one of the biggest in recent times and was felt in the entire North-east region. All states in the North-East are categorized under zone V in the country’s Seismological map and considered to be highly vulnerable.
Meanwhile, fresh tremor measuring 3.6 on richter scale were felt in Manipur. In Mizoram, people ran out of their homes looking for safe places in capital Aizwal and the quake was also felt in other parts of the state. Nagaland State Disaster Management Agency said that strong tremors were felt across the state, but there were no reports of any damage. A report from Agartala said the tremor was felt across Tripura today, but there was no report of any casualty or damage to property so far.
In Bangladesh, it was panic fleeing that claimed the death of a 23-year old student of Dhaka University who apparently suffered a cardiac arrest. Many of the injured in Dhaka are students of Dhaka University who jumped from their second or third floor residential halls in panic as the buildings shook and swayed during the quake. As already reported panic-driven cardiac arrest killed another in northwestern Rajashahi. In northern Sylhet district which borders Assam, 30 people were injured as people desperately tried to flee their homes.
The high-intensity earthquake also jolted parts of Tibet with many residents waking up after feeling the ground shake. The earthquake affected the prefectures of Nyingchi, Shannan and Qamdo as well as the regional capital Lhasa reporting “strong tremors. No casualties have been reported so far. The head of Nyingchi’s Metok County told state-run Xinhua news agency that the tremor was so strong that the local government had to tell local township and village officials in the Tibet autonomous region to check for possible casualties or damage.
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), said in its bulletin that there was no danger of a tsunami from the strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake. Based on historical earthquake and tsunami data, Tsunami threat does into exist for India, it added.
