A powerful earthquake rocked western India yesterday, killing at least 374 people and throwing the country's Republic Day public holiday into confusion, reports from the area said.
The quake -- measured at 7.9 on the Richter scale by the US Geological Survey -- was the region's most intense in half a century, the Indian Meteorological Department said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
There was no immediate official word on casualties but the Press Trust of India (PTI), quoting officials, put the toll at 500 but said that it was likely to rise with many people still trapped under rubble.
It quoted a spokesman of the home department of Gujarat, which bore the brunt of the quake, as saying that at least 200 people had died in the city of Ahmedabad alone. The death toll was expected to rise, with many people still buried under debris.
Residents said the tremors lasted for about 45 seconds from 8:46am and sent people scurrying from their homes.
"It was like being on a swing. Nobody could get out for those 20 or 30 seconds," said Vinay Kumar, who works for Gujarat Petroleum Corp there. "The building shook so much that it developed cracks."
In Pakistan, rescue workers said that the quake had killed at least two people there.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called an emergency federal cabinet meeting to assess the impact of the quake.
The quake hit as India was celebrating Republic Day, which marks its transition to a republic in 1950.
PTI said that the coastal town of Bhuj, where a five-storey building collapsed killing 150 people, was the worst-hit. PTI put the Ahmedabad toll at 130.
The Meteorological Department said the epicenter of yesterday's earthquake was in an area 20km northeast of Bhuj in the marshy and sparsely populated Rand of Kutch, which lies on the border with Pakistan.
Residents in the neighboring Pakistani cities of Karachi in the southwest and Peshawar in the northwest also said they had felt strong tremors yesterday.
The quake was felt from Kathmandu in Nepal to Madras in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
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