Quake Kills at Least 140 in India, Pakistan

A powerful earthquake rocked India and Pakistan today, knocking over buildings and killing at least 140 people, officials said.

The quake hit India at 8:50 a.m. on Republic Day, which marks its transition to a republic in 1950.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported on its Web site that the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.9 and was felt from Pakistan to Nepal, and in India, from New Delhi to Bombay and Madras in the south.

Earlier, the Indian Meteorological Institute gave a preliminary magnitude of 6.9, with an epicenter in the Rann of Kutch, a desert plateau along the border between Pakistan and India, about 190 miles southeast of the Pakistani city of Karachi.

In India’s western Gujarat state, there were 136 deaths, Home Minister Haren Pandya was quoted as saying by local television stations.

More than 100 buildings collapsed in the state, Pandya said. There also were reports of mine cave-ins, train derailments, broken water pipes, and downed power and phone lines.

“Forty buildings have collapsed in Ahmadabad alone, and 100 buildings have fallen all over Gujarat,” Pandya said. “The whole state has been affected. Communications have been disrupted all over the state.” Ahmadabad is the state’s main commercial center.

Pandya said the army had been put on alert and an emergency force called in to help rescue efforts.