India Fears 15,000 Dead in Quake, Urges Calm

India Fears 15,000 Dead in Quake, Urges Calm

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Thousands of shocked survivors slept in the open rather than risk entering shelters on Sunday as rumors swept western India of more tremors after an earthquake in which 15,000 were feared dead.

Officials appealed for calm, as families pushed injured relatives in handcarts, urgently seeking medical help between heaps of rubble up to 8 meters (25 feet) high, some lost patience during long waits for fuel and rescuers admitted two days after the quake that they now sought mostly bodies.

"Please tell the people no one has predicted another earthquake. These are all rumors," Star Television quoted Haren Pandya, home (interior) minister of the western state of Gujarat as saying.

The quake on Friday, India's Republic Day holiday, measured at 7.9 on the Richter scale, and cut a swathe of destruction across the prosperous agricultural and industrial state of Gujarat, from its prosperous commercial capital Ahmedabad to the coastal marshes of Kutch, near the epicentre.

Officials were unable to give a clear death toll from the quake, the most powerful to hit India in half a century, as many were still buried under rubble.

Narendra Modi, General Secretary of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said he believed 15,000 may have died, including 13,000 in Kutch.

"I have come to the conclusion that we will cross 13,000 in Kutch alone and elsewhere maybe 2,000 more," Modi told Reuters in Ahmedabad on his return from a helicopter tour of the region.

Star TV quoted federal Defence Minister George Fernandes as telling reporters he also feared 15,000 had died.

If confirmed, the death toll would approach that of a severe earthquake in Turkey in August 1999, when more than 17,000 people perished.

Bhuj, only about 20 km (12 miles) from the epicentre, counted many of the dead among its 150,000 people. Nearby Anjar, home to 30,000, was flattened.

Police said some 350 schoolchildren and 50 teachers were feared dead when they were buried in rubble during a school parade celebrating the anniversary of India becoming a republic in 1950. Another 50 were pulled out alive.

"In Anjar, you can't find a single house intact," Modi said.

Much of Bhuj was also reduced to rubble, an isolated bright spot the rescue of a 75-year-old pulled out of her collapsed house more than 30 hours after the quake with only minor injuries.

SHORTAGE OF WATER, FOOD AND FUEL

There was already a severe shortage of food, water and fuel despite the airforce planes which flew in relief supplies, and then ferried bandaged and dazed survivors to safety. Electricity came from only a few emergency generators.

Tempers frayed as survivors desperate to escape Bhuj queued for fuel for cars, scooters and motorized rickshaws.

The estimated 200 aftershocks had added to the unease.

There was a deathly silence among the ruins of the old city of Bhuj. Rescue operations, hampered by the lack of electricity, wound down as night fell.

Along the cracked roads leading to Bhuj, collapsed houses, buildings and temples dotted the landscape. At some points, bodies that had not been properly cremated were still smouldering.

Gujarat State Minister for Transport and IT Bimal Shah said he estimated more than 500 were dead in Ahmedabad. Among them were nearly 30 students trapped in a high school stairwell as they tried to escape.

Many of the five million residents of the prosperous textile and gold trading town expressed anger that recently constructed buildings had been built illegally, flouting regulations meant to limit the risk of collapse in the earthquake-prone zone.

Special trains were from India's main cities ferried anxious relatives to Gujarat. Many waiting at railway stations to board trains had had no news of their families since the quake.

The Indian army and air force swung into a massive rescue effort, flying in satellite telecommunications equipment to restore Gujarat's links with the rest of the country.

Thousands of troops, engineers and doctors joined the relief effort. The Air Force said it had 40 cargo planes and military aircraft ferrying engineering equipment, mobile kitchens, food, water, tents and blankets, and power generators.

Officials were also concerned about disease if bodies began decomposing under the rubble.

"Steps are being taken against the outbreak of epidemic, chlorine tablets have been sent and more are being sent. Public health teams are on standby and some have been sent to Bhuj and Ahmedabad," Bhaskar Barua, a senior government official, said.

HELP FROM ABROAD

Many countries offered help.

Neighboring Pakistan, putting aside its differences with nuclear rival India, said it would provide relief.

Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy and the European Union offered more than $11 million while the United Nations and Turkey sent expert teams to help in the rescue operations.

Switzerland offered sniffer dogs due to arrive in Ahmedabad late on Thursday.