Toll in state 25 & rising, 150 hurt - Districts along Nepal worst hit, eight aftershocks felt in aftermath

Stairs of a Motihari school collapse on impact of the tremor on Saturday. (PTI)

Joy Sengupta , TT, Patna, April 25: At least 25 people were killed and over 150 injured in Bihar when an earthquake with its epicentre near Pokhra in Nepal - 500km north from here - hit the Himalayan republic, convulsing large parts of the state, particularly the districts bordering Nepal.

A communique from the chief minister's office put the toll in the state at 25. Officials said the toll might rise. "The state government would treat the injured for free. Relief operations have been started and five teams of the National Disaster Res-ponse Force (NDRF) and four teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been dispatched to the affected districts. The department has sounded an alert for the next 24 hours and issued a list of dos and don'ts, requesting the people to follow them. The state government would keep in touch with the people of the state via television and radio and provide them with updates. Two helpline numbers (0612-2217301 and 0612-2217305) have come up for people in need of information to call. The numbers would operate through the day," a government official told The Telegraph.

At its epicentre in Nepal, the quake measured 7.9 on the Richter. Ashish Sen, director of Patna meteorological centre, told The Telegraph it struck Bihar around 11.41am, measuring 7.5 on the Richter and affecting mostly North Bihar. Twenty aftershocks were felt at the epicentre, two in Patna and around 5-6 in areas bordering Nepal. The first aftershock measuring 6.6 on the Richter struck Patna at 12.15pm and a second one (5.9) around 3pm. Sharp tremors were felt in south Bihar districts of Patna, Gaya and Aurangabad and central Bihar districts of Buxar and Ara. The worst affected, however, were Sitamarhi, Darbhanga and East Champaran - in north Bihar and bordering Nepal.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, who rushed back from New Delhi during the day, said seven persons were killed in East Champaran and six in Sitamarhi. There were three deaths in Darbhanga, two each in Madhubani, Saran and Araria and one each in Sheohar, Supual and West Champaran, he said.

"The shocking part lies in the fact that most of the dead are either children in the age group of 7-13 or old citizens. All of them died after their homes or a wall caved in on them. More than 150 people, including women and children, are injured and they are being treated at public health centres and government hospitals. The Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) has been kept on a full alert and doctors on leave have been asked to return," a department official said. Seohar district magistrate Kumar Vinod Narayan Singh said a seven-year-old girl died in Berindaban Musehri village after a wall fell on her.

"Three of the dead in Sitamarhi are children. The deaths happened in the villages mainly and the main cause was a wall cave-in," Sitamarhi district magistrate Pratima Satish Kumar Verma told The Telegraph.

In Muzaffarpur, around 15 houses in areas like the Bank Road, Sutta Patti and Kali Kothi developed cracks and five people were injured. The Moti Jheel Flyover in Muzaffarpur has also developed cracks, authorities said.

In Saharsa and Madhepura districts, over two-dozen homes were damaged. Madhepura district magistrate Gopal Meena said a high alert had been sounded in the district. In Supaul, a boundary wall of the prison there caved in because of the tremors.

Additional reporting by Piyush Kumar Tripathi