12 foreigners rescued, toll up to 117
Twelve stranded foreigners were rescued from the North district as relief teams battled hard to reach remote quake-hit areas with landslides blocking roads as the toll in Sunday’s powerful temblor rose to 117, including 74 in the Himalayan state.
With one more body recovered from the North district, the toll in Sikkim has gone up to 74 while West Bengal has reported 15 deaths, nine in Bihar, 11 in Nepal, seven in Tibet and one in Bhutan.
Officials said 21 people, including 12 foreigners stranded in the district were airlifted to Gangtok.
Four key roads — Chungthang-Lachen, Chungthan-Lachung, Pedong-Kupup and Rangpo-Rorathang — are still blocked due to landslide and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and Army Engineers are working on their restoration.
Four pregnant women were shifted by ITBP to Mangan Chungthang hospitals.
Rescue teams also evacuated 18 more Indian tourists from Rangma Range and nine civilian workers of Teesta project from Pegong.
Power supply in Sikkim has been normal except in the some parts of North district.
Most of the employees and labourers of the Teesta Hydro Electro Project have been counted for and fears of recovery of more bodies in and around the construction site have been dispelled by the rescuers, a senior Home ministry official said.
Army personnel involved in the rescue operation at Saffu could not reach the Teesta project site by road owing to landslides and reached the area through the project tunnels.
Most of the people, including tourists, have been evacuated from Lachen, but there were fresh landslides in the area which, coupled with intermittent rains, made the going difficult for the Army, officials said.
Ten teams of NDRF comprising 403 personnel along with necessary equipment have been deployed for search and rescue operations.
Three teams of NDRF which were located at Gangtok have moved to Mangan and two teams located at Mangan have been deployed for search and rescue operations in villages Ramam, Lingzya and Dzongu. — PTI
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