Gauhati: Rescue workers used shovels and their bare hands to pull bodies from the debris of collapsed buildings Monday, as the death toll from an earthquake that hit northeast India, Nepal and Tibet rose to 50.
At least 25 people died in the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim after the 6.9 magnitude quake hit the region Sunday evening, police said.
Paramilitary soldiers had pulled out 18 bodies and had located seven others buried under mounds of concrete in Gangtok, Sikkim's capital, said police Chief Jasbir Singh.
Another 11 people were killed the neighbouring Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal. Seven people died in Nepal and China's official Xinhua news agency reported seven deaths from Tibet.
Most of the deaths occurred when houses, already weakened from recent monsoon rains, collapsed due to the force of the quake, which was centered in Sikkim near India's border with Nepal.
Heavy rains and landslides hampered rescue workers as they worked through the night to pull people from under the rubble, Singh said.
Much of the damage was not immediately known because the region is remote and sparsely populated.
Building collapses, landslides
Earlier it was reported that the death toll from a 6.9 magnitude quake that hit the India-Nepal border had risen to 36, with fresh reports of at least seven dead in neighbouring Tibet.
At least 15 people were killed in India's northeastern state of Sikkim in Sunday's quake, while building collapses and landslides claimed another nine lives in adjoining Indian states.
Nepalese police said five people were killed in Nepal, and China's official Xinhua news agency reported seven dead in southern Tibet.
British embassy, Nepal
Earlier it had been reported that the earthquake had killed at least 19 people, including three caught in a wall collapse at the British Embassy in neighbouring Nepal.
The quake was felt across a wide region after it struck the small, landlocked Himalayan state of Sikkim, which borders Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet - at about 6:10pm (1240 GMT), according to the US Geological Survey.
The epicentre was just over 60 kilometres northwest of the Sikkim state capital Gangtok, where at least 60 people were injured and the town was plunged into darkness by a power cut after the quake.
Electricity
"There is no electricity. Everybody is out on the road," Gangtok resident C.K. Dahal told the CNN-IBN television news channel. "We all ran out our houses, some even jumped out of their windows. You can see some buildings that have developed cracks," he added.
Tremors were felt in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Indian cities of Guwahati and Kolkata, as well as 1,000 kilometres away in the Indian capital New Delhi.
In Nepal, police said three people were killed, including a motorcyclist and his eight-year-old daughter, when a wall collapsed at the British Embassy compound in the capital Kathmandu, 270 kilometres west of the epicentre.
"Another two died in a separate incident in eastern Nepal," national police spokesman Binod Singh told AFP. A budget debate in Nepal's parliament was stalled for 15 minutes while lawmakers leapt to their feet and fled the chamber as the entire building shook.
Phone lines
Telephone landlines to Sikkim, India's least populous state, were knocked out and mobile networks were swamped, making communication with the affected area difficult.
The quake was followed by two strong aftershocks, one with a magnitude of 6.1, and the death toll may rise as reports arrive from remote communities.
Sikkim Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso told AFP that five people had been killed and 60 injured in and around Gangtok as the result of mudslides, building collapses and falling debris.
Roads blocked, houses collapsed
"We have reports of dozens of collapsed houses, and roads to many towns have been blocked by landslides," Gyatso said.
The Press Trust of India news agency said that police rescued 15 foreign tourists in the north of Sikkim, a popular destination for trekkers, but it did not give their nationalities.
Nine other people died in India, including one reportedly killed in a stampede by panicked residents in Bihar state and four who were buried when a house fell down near Darjeeling.
