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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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