GAUHATI, India – Rescue workers raced Monday to clear roads blocked by mudslides as they attempted to reach remote villages cut off after a powerful earthquake killed at least 55 people and damaged more than 100,000 homes in northeastern India, Nepal and Tibet.
Hundreds of paramilitary soldiers and local police cleared away concrete slabs, bricks and mud to rescue scores of people trapped under the debris of houses that collapsed after the 6.9-magnitude quake struck the mountainous Himalayan region Sunday evening.
At least 30 people died in the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim, where the quake was centered near India’s border with Nepal, officials said.
Paramilitary soldiers pulled out 23 bodies and located seven others buried under mounds of concrete in Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital, said police Chief Jasbir Singh. At least 50 people, some with serious injuries, were hospitalized, he said.
Another 11 people were killed the neighboring Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal. Seven people died in Nepal, and China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported seven deaths in Tibet.
Most of the deaths occurred when houses, already weakened from recent monsoon rains, collapsed due to the force of the quake.
Heavy rains and landslides hampered rescue workers as they worked through the night to
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