NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- A severe earthquake struck a seismic hot zone in India's Himalayan foothills Monday, toppling houses, causing landslides and killing at least 87 people.
It was the strongest earthquake this century in the quake-prone mountains, with a magnitude of 6.8 and lasting nearly 40 seconds, India's seismological department said.The epicenter was in a remote area of the Kumaon hills in the state of Uttar Pradesh, 185 miles northeast of New Delhi near India's border with China.
Police said scores were injured and the number of victims was likely to rise. Reports of casualties and damage were sketchy long after the quake, which jolted northern India just after midnight local time (12:05 p.m. MST Sunday).
Telephone lines to the area were knocked out. Many of the villages in the region have no communications at all and can be reached only by dirt paths.
A 10-mile stretch of road leading to Chamoli, the town nearest the epicenter, was blocked by landslides.
"It looks like half the mountain had come off," said district magistrate Uma Kant Pawar, Chamoli's top appointed official.
"We were watching a Hindi movie on television when chairs, wardrobes and beds started toppling over," he said, reached by telephone. "Before we could realize what was happening, the electricity went off and the whole area plunged into darkness."