Mamata to head north

A first-floor balcony of a three-storey house in Siliguri town got severed and fell off
during the quake on Saturday morning. No one died. The house belongs to a civil
 engineer who retired from the state public works department. Hirendralal Sarkar, 77,
 and his wife were at home when the quake shook their building. Sarkar, who cannot
walk fast, somehow moved to a corner of the house with his wife after sensing the
tremor. When the tremor stopped, they heard a loud thud. The balcony, built three
years ago, had separated from the rest of the house. It would have crashed on the
road below, but branches of a tree checked its fall. Picture by Kundan Yolmo,
Report by Avijit Sinha

TT, April 25: Five persons died in three north Bengal districts in today's quake, prompting chief minister Mamata Banerjee to announce a trip to Siliguri to oversee relief operations.

Walls collapsed in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, killing two persons.

The dead have been identified as Manglu Roy, 42, and Rikban Khatun, 52. A mud wall fell on Rikban in the Naxalbari block of Darjeeling district. Manglu, a labourer and resident of Sahudangi in Jalpaiguri district, died when the wall of an under-construction building fell on him.

Three women died in Malda district. According to police, Daksha Bewa, 65, a resident of Bhintola village in Manikchak, died after being thrown off a bed she was sleeping on.

The second victim, Akiton Bewa, 70, tripped while running out of her home at Bangitola village in Kaliachak, villagers said.

Gyanada Mondal, 80, died after falling off a motorbike. She and her son, Sunil, were on their way to a bank. The police said Sunil lost control trying to avoid panic-stricken people running around on the road.

Malda district magistrate Sharad Dwivedi said he had not yet received any reports regarding the deaths. "I have asked the BDOs concerned to find out what happened," he said.

The quake's aftershocks were felt across Bengal, though no other deaths were reported, according to government officials.

The chief minister, who will be in Siliguri tomorrow, said she spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the phone soon after the quake.

At Nabanna in the afternoon, Mamata said she had told the Prime Minister "we are one of the worst sufferers and could not assess the extent of the damage as yet because our officers could not reach the remote areas".

"I have informed him that as soon as we get to know the extent of the damage, we will inform the Centre," she added.

The chief minister said according to preliminary reports, three persons had died and at least 50 were injured. Several government and private buildings were damaged, she said.

"Districts like Malda, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri are the worst sufferers, while Calcutta also witnessed the wrath of the earthquake. We have set up teams of engineers to undertake surveys of several bridges as we need to be sure that these installations are safe," the chief minister said.

Mamata said she would be staying in Siliguri to oversee the rescue work in the north Bengal districts. "I will be there by tomorrow afternoon and I will look after the rescue work. I have already sent a team of experts, led by disaster management secretary S. Suresh Kumar, to Siliguri this evening."

After the earthquake, panic-stricken people started rushing to the Siliguri District Hospital, but most were sent home after a check-up.

Siliguri MLA Rudranath Bhattacharya said three persons, one of them a minor, had been admitted to the hospital with fractures in their legs.

"Three persons have been admitted with fractured legs, the majority of the patients were panic-stricken. Some patients who became senseless were brought here while others came with complaints of palpitation, breathlessness, and high and low blood pressure," Bhattacharya said.

Boundary walls at different places in Siliguri and Jalpaiguri have collapsed because of the tremors.