N-E quake aftershocks kill 2, leave 20 injured in Bengal

The quake, measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, originated from Tameglong district in Manipur at 4:37 a.m. and caused serious damage in North Bengal. Many houses collapsed in Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Siliguri and other districts in South Bengal.

 Santi Biswas (50) of Burdwan district and Nawasad Seikh (58) of Laldighi in Murshidabad district reportedly died of a heart attack when they felt the tremor strike.  Biswas, who apparently fell from the stairs, was declared dead when brought to the hospital. 

Nawasad reportedly suffered a heart attack while exiting his house and died while in the hospital. The death of the two men is yet to be confirmed by their respective district administrations.

 Residents of many multi-storey buildings in Siliguri sustained injuries, while several mud houses in rural areas of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar collapsed in the intensity of the earthquake. Eight people were hospitalized in Siliguri district hospital while four were taken to Jalpaiguri hospital. No casualties were reported in both areas. 

The tremor was also felt in other districts like Nadia, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Midnapore, Howrah and Kolkata. Residents of various residential complexes in Barasat, the administrative head quarter of North 24-Parganas had to evacuate their flats. 

Subarna Mukherjee a resident of Nabapally area in Barasat said, “We woke up in the tremor and found that the bed was shaking. The ceiling fan was swinging wildly. We were so frightened that we got my child up from his sleep. People from other flats of our residential complex also left their houses and were waiting outside in fear of aftershocks.” 

Sourav Das, a bank employee, another resident of the residential flat in Noapara area in Barasat said, “We were very frightened as there had been a sharp rise of earthquake incidents in recent time. 

We saw a devastating earthquake in Nepal few months ago. We don’t know how far we are safe.” 

Experts say that Kolkata, not being too far from the quake-prone areas, is always vulnerable. The source of this quake was 350 km away from the city.