No trace of 120 people at a North Sikkim village; quake toll rises

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It's a story straight from a horror novel.

According to reports, there is still no trace of 120 residents of Bay village in North Sikkim, located between Lachung and Chungthang, after Sunday's powerful quake even as a flash flood at Lachung poses a fresh threat of landslides.

"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 said.

He said four NDRF teams have fanned out to worst-hit Lingu, Sakyang, Pentong and Bay villages in North Sikkim which have been rendered almost inaccessible after the quake.

"We are afraid some bodies may have been trapped under the flattened houses as boulders are lying strewn all over," he added. According to S.R. Bhutia, Deputy Director of Horticultural Society of Sikkim, who led the four teams, 'we haven't found any person in the village. We are searching for them'.

Meanwhile, a flash flood at Lachung Chu river has posed a threat of fresh landslides at Lachung, one of the worst-hit by the quake, according to a Geological Survey of India officer.

"The flash flood will loosen the soil and may trigger fresh landslides in the area," the GSI's Sikkim zone officer said.

Death toll crosses 100

The death toll from the weekend earthquake in the Himalayas, meanwhile, has crossed 100

The 6.8-magnitude quake struck the border of India's northeastern state of Sikkim and Nepal, bringing destruction to towns and villages on both sides as well as in southern Tibet and the tiny kingdom of Bhutan.

Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling confirmed 68 deaths in the state and said there was still no contact with a number of villages in the quake zone.

In another tragic incident, a company building a huge hydroelectric plant in Chungtang said 18 of its employees had been killed.

Rescue efforts began in earnest after emergency teams and relief workers spent two days battling heavy rains, damaged roads and landslides to reach the worst-affected areas.

Bodies in the debris

S.K. Pradhan, the district magistrate of Chungtang, close to the epicentre, said he saw signs of badly damaged villages as he flew over the sparsely populated area.

"We could see bodies lying in the debris, but for now our priority is to evacuate the injured and then we will take stock of the dead," he said.

"We are still not able to contact many remote villages."

Doctors at Mangan district hospital said most of the seriously injured had badly crushed limbs and bodies after being caught in rockfalls or building collapses.

More than 40 stranded tourists, including a number of foreigners, had been airlifted to safety, the army said.