At least 51 killed across Bihar, U.P., West Bengal

"Our focus is on rescue operations. The damage assessment will follow in some time," L.C. Goyal said.

Although Nepal bore the brunt of Saturday’s high-intensity earthquake, tremors from the shallow quake triggered house collapses resulting in 51 deaths across the Indian States of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

National Disaster Response Force teams have begun rescue work in the affected areas.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said 38 persons were killed in Bihar.

Ten were killed in Uttar Pradesh and three in West Bengal.

As soon as the first reports came in, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the dispatch of relief and rescue teams to the affected areas. Mr. Modi also spoke to Chief Ministers Akhilesh Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, Pawan Kumar Chamling and Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The Prime Minister also spoke to the Nepalese President.

The C-130J Super Hercules aircraft of the Indian Air Force landed at Kathmandu with 39 NDRF personnel and 3.5 tonnes of relief material. The aircraft brought 55 Indian evacuees here around 10.45 p.m., Defence Ministry spokesperson said. Earlier, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said an IL-76 and a C-17 aircraft had been sent to Kathmandu to ferry Indian nationals.

Mr. Modi later took stock of the situation at a high-level meeting.

Massive earthquake in Nepal; over 1,500 killed

>

7.9 earthquake in Nepal; tremors felt across north India

A strong 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook Nepal's capital causing massive damage. Some tremors are reported to have lasted as much as 20 seconds.

>

A selection of images capturing the extent of damage

These visualisations show how the intensity varied with distance from epicentre. > Read more The PM spoke to Nepal President and Chief Ministers of Bihar, Sikkim. > Read more Helpline no.s: +91 11 2301 2113, +91 11 2301 4104 and +91 11 2301 7905. > Read more

"Blind thrust" quakes are ones that do not break the surface, and tend to be more frequent. These records indicate that the region has a rich history of quakes in the past centuries. > Read more

A magnitude-7.8 earthquake shook Nepal’s capital and the densely populated Kathmandu Valley on Saturday, the worst quake in the Himalayan nation in over 80 years. A look at the world’s strongest earthquakes since 1900. > Read more