Landslides created worst conditions for needy survivors of earthquake
GUWAHATI: On Tuesday in search of survivors of the powerful earthquake the Air force helicopters flew rescue workers to the remote Himalayan region of Sikkim’s Mangan. The quake was so powerful that killed more than 80 people in India, Nepal and Tibet.
On Sunday most of the casualties were near the epicentre of 6.9 magnitude quake in the sparsely populated Sikkim. This area is popular with tourists for its Buddhist monasteries and spectacular trekking.
An official at the state’s health ministry said, more than 50 have died in Sikkim so far and there is shortage of space to admit patients in the hospitals.
Landslides, rain and fog hampered relief efforts for the second day, with many of the region’s high mountain passes being blocked. But Army helicopters took advantage of a break in the clouds to fly a small group of rescuers into Mangan, a small town ringed by snow-capped mountains near the epicentre.
Around 68people have died in India, 50 of them in Sikkim, in the devastating earthquake which measured a forceful 6.8 on the Richter scale.
Due to rain, landslides blocked the main access to the state overnight; it created a worst condition a bulk of hundreds of rescue workers deployed from New Delhi unable to reach the needy areas.
(News Editor- Naushin Fatima Khan)
