1,500 feared killed in Gujarat quake

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD, JAN. 26. At least 1,000 people were feared killed, including about 300 in Ahmedabad city, and several thousands injured in an earthquake which struck Gujarat this morning. Several hundreds were also rendered homeless. The Army was called in to assist civic authorities in the rescue and relief operations in Ahmedabad and some other parts. (A PTI report said the toll was over 1,500.)

An official spokesman said the toll was expected to go up further as thousands were still trapped under the debris of fallen buildings in several towns.

(According to PTI, the entire northern belt experienced tremors while ``vibrations'' from the severe quake were felt even as far south as Chennai. Mild tremors were also felt in Kolkata, Shillong, Agartala and Nepal.)

The quake, said to be the second strongest in the last 50 years in any part of India, measured 6.9 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre about 20 km northeast of Bhuj, district headquarters of Kutch, lasted several seconds.

The Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, who arrived here this evening for an on-the-spot study, told mediapersons that the number of casualties could be ``in four figures''. He said almost the entire belt from Bhuj to Rajkot was very severely affected but no immediate information was available about the extent of damage. The Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, rushed to Bhuj to assess the situation, particularly the defence installations in the border district. (A UNI report from New Delhi quoted the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, as saying the Government might consider declaring the quake a national calamity, if needed. The Prime Minister would also visit the State in due course.)

Communications hit

The Kutch and Saurashtra regions were said to be the worst affected and with the communication network badly hit, only sketchy reports reached the State headquarters. According to initial reports, at least 160 persons were killed in Bhuj, about 155 in Rajkot, 100 in Morbi, 87 in Jamnagar, 55 in Surendranagar, 25 in Porbandar, 30 in Wankaner, about 40 in Palanpur, 28 in Patan and about 10 each in Broach and Navsari. No information was available from rural regions.

The coastal town of Bhavnagar, which had experienced repeated tremors over the last couple of months, was again hit but initial reports indicate it might have suffered less casualties than Bhuj or Ahmedabad.

Though the intensity was less severe than in the central and southern regions, Surat suffered extensive damage with 33 deaths reported from the city, while one person was killed at Sadra village of Baroda district.

At least 10 students of the Morbi Engineering college in Rajkot district were killed when a hostel building collapsed. The town, main centre for manufacturing scientific clocks and virtually rebuilt after the 1979 Machhu-II dam disaster in which at least 2,000 people were killed, was again very badly affected.

Bridge develops cracks

At least 150 buildings, including about a dozen high-rise structures, collapsed in different parts of Ahmedabad. By evening, at least 247 bodies had been recovered and rescue work was in full swing. The Nehru bridge, one of the six major bridges over the Sabarmati linking the old city with new Ahmedabad, developed a major crack in the middle, forcing the authorities to suspend traffic. There was hardly a building left in the city and many other parts of the State which had not developed cracks.

It took several seconds for the people to realise what was happening as buildings began shaking around 8.50 a.m. and soon millions of people rushed out of their houses onto the roads and open fields to escape the nature's fury. The entire city was hit by failure of power which, however, was restored in a couple of hours, but most of the telephones remained dead throughout the day. Mobile phones were also badly affected. Timely action by authorities averted a collapse of the western power grid after several power plants in the State collapsed.

Emergency control rooms have been opened at the state police control and the City Police Commissioner's office here to coordinate relief and rescue work. Besides Mr. Advani and Mr. Fernandes, the Union Textiles Minister, Mr. Kashiram Rana, the BJP national general secretary, Mr. Narendra Modi, and several other senior Central Government leaders reached here. The Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, asking the Government officials to immediately report back to duty (in view of the Republic Day, it was a holiday today), also appealed to the people to have patience and cooperate with the authorities.

Home Guards and voluntary organisations were helping the fire brigade rescue people trapped under the debris and shifting people from those buildings which were still hanging precariously.

The municipal corporation-run V. S. hospital was entirely vacated, except emergency cases, to accommodate the quake- affected people. A large number of non-emergency patients were also vacated from the government-run civil hospital, as thousands of the injured rushed there. The two hospitals were overcrowded with the dead, the injured and their relatives.

The State Government has appealed to all private doctors to keep their clinics open round-the-clock to treat the injured, while off-duty medical personnel employed in the government and semi- government hospitals have been called back.R-Day parade cancelled

The Republic Day parade could not be held and a get-together at the Raj Bhavan this evening was cancelled. The Chief Minister, who visited the civil hospital to console the family members of the deceased, ordered an inquiry to ascertain the causes of the quake and declared a state of alert in view of the fears that the quake might hit any part of the State again during the next fortnight.

According to an official spokesman, today's quake was more intense than the 1993 Latur quake, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale. He did not rule out the possibility of more tremors hitting Ahmedabad and other parts in the next few days and advised people to remain vigilant and abandon their houses at the first shock.

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