Twenty more bodies were recovered in quake-hit Sikkim taking the toll in Sunday’s powerful 6.8 magnitude temblor to 116 which may go up further with rescue teams still to reach about 15 affected remote villages in North district.
While the toll rose from 53 to 73 in Sikkim, West Bengal has reported 15 deaths, nine in Bihar, 11 in Nepal, seven in Tibet and one in Bhutan.
Officials said rescue teams found six bodies in east Sikkim and 14 in north as they managed to enter Dzongu from Mangan, the headquarters of North Sikkim where the strong quake was epicentred.
There is still no trace of 120 residents of Bay village in north Sikkim, located between Lachung and Chungthang, three days after the quake.
“We find no trace as yet of 120 people living in 14 huts at Bay village as the area is totally devastated. There is a lot of debris ... And the residents have gone missing,” National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team in-charge Nisith Upadhyay told PTI here.
“We are afraid some bodies may have been trapped under the flattened houses as boulders are lying strewn all over,” he added.
Fourty foreign tourists stranded in North Sikkim were evacuated, a Union home ministry official said.
Defence forces and other agencies struggled hard to clear mud, rocks and boulders blocking roads to reach the affected areas.
In Lalchung, a seriously injured bus passenger was rescued in an Army helicopter in a daring operation as there was no place to land. North district alone accounted for 50 deaths, while 18 people died in East district, four in West and one in South district. Over 300 people were injured. — PTI