BHUJ (Reuters)
- Thousands of shocked survivors slept in the open rather than
risk entering shelters on Sunday as western India experienced
fresh tremors after an earthquake in which 15,000 were feared
killed.
Officials appealed for calm, as families pushed injured relatives
in handcarts, urgently seeking medical help, between heaps of
rubble up to 25 feet high.
Some survivors lost patience during long waits for fuel, and rescuers
admitted two days after the quake that they were now mostly searching
for bodies.
The quake on Friday, India's Republic Day holiday, measured 7.9
on the Richter scale and cut a swathe of destruction across the
prosperous agricultural and industrial state of Gujarat, from
its commercial capital Ahmedabad to the coastal marshes of Kutch,
near the epicenter.
Officials were unable to give an accurate death toll from the
quake, the most powerful to hit India in half a century, as many
people were still buried under rubble.
Narendra Modi, General Secretary of the ruling Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), said he believed 15,000 might 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 Defense 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 12 miles from the epicenter, 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 from rubble alive.
"In Anjar, you can't find a single house intact," Modi said.
Much of Bhuj was also reduced to rubble.
SHORTAGE OF WATER, FOOD AND FUEL
There was already a severe shortage of food, water and fuel despite
the air force 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.
An estimated 200 aftershocks had added to the unease.
Residents in Ahmedabad ran scared as fresh tremors shook the city
of five million people early on Sunday.
Most residents had spent the night on the roads, but the tremors
raised the possibility of fresh devastation for those who had
returned to their homes not damaged in the killer quake.
"We were reminded of the day before yesterday and were worried
that the house will come down. We all ran out," said Mitu Phulwani,
a housewife.
There were no immediate reports of new damage.
DEATHLY SILENCE IN BHUJ
There was a deathly silence among the ruins of the older parts
of Bhuj town. Rescue operations, hampered by the lack of electricity,
wound down as night fell on Saturday.
Along the cracked roads leading to Bhuj, collapsed houses, buildings
and temples dotted the landscape.
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.
Special trains 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 huge 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, 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... 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. The quake killed at
lest 15 people in Pakistan.
Rescue teams, sniffer dogs and relief funds from Britain, Germany,
Canada, Italy, the United Nations and Turkey were set to arrive
in India on the weekend.
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