GANGTOK, India — More than 20 people were killed and many more injured when a 6.9-magnitude earthquake shook northern India and Nepal today, according to media reports.
The tremor hit at 6:10 p.m. in the mountainous northern Indian state of Sikkim and was quickly followed by a 4.8-magnitude aftershock and a 4.6-magnitude aftershock. Officials said it was the biggest quake the region has seen in two decades.
Seven people died in Sikkim — including two army servicemen — and about 33 people were believed to be injured following the tremors, CNN-IBN reported, citing the chief secretary of Sikkim, Karma Gyatso.
In the Indian state of Bihar, a five-year-old girl was killed in the Nalanda district, a youth died in the Darbhanga district and a man in Bhagalpur died in a stampede following the quake, the Press Trust of India reported. Four others apparently died in West Bengal.
Initial reports indicated that five people died in Nepal, including three in the capital Kathmandu where a wall of the British Embassy collapsed.
“At least three people were killed in Kathmandu when a British Embassy wall collapsed due to the earthquake and another two from a separate incident in eastern Nepal,” national police spokesman Binod Singh told AFP.
The quake struck at a depth of 12.2 miles, the US Geological Survey said, and its epicenter was located 42 miles northwest of Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, which saw extensive structural damage, according to reports.
Two major landslides reportedly cut Gangtok off from a major highway. Phone lines to the capital city were temporarily knocked out, mobile networks were swamped and several buildings have also been damaged, AFP reported.
“We all ran out our houses, some even jumped out of their windows. You can see some buildings that have developed cracks,” Gangtok resident C.K. Dahal told CNN-IBN.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken to Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling and offered government assistance, NDTV said.
Singh has ordered an emergency meeting of India’s National Disaster Management Authority to be held in the wake of the tremor.