Three persons were killed and at least 69, including 43 school children, were injured while several buildings developed cracks in West Bengal after a high intensity earthquake rocked several parts of the country and Nepal today.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the "extensive damage" caused by the earthquake.
The chief minister who chaired a high-level meeting to take stock of the situation at Nabanna, the state secretariat, told reporters that three persons lost their lives in the earthquake in north Bengal.
A person identified as M Rai was killed in Jalpaiguri, while another Rukban Khatun was killed in Naxalbari in Darjeeling district. The third person, a construction worker was killed in Siliguri.
State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, chief secretary, home secretary, director general of police and secretary to the disaster management department were present at the high-level meeting as well as other top officials.
Banerjee, who is monitoring the situation arising out of the quake, said it would take sometime to get the entire picture of the damage wrecked by it specially from the interior areas of Darjeeling district which suffered extensive damage.
"I will send a report to the Prime Minister," she said.
The chief minister said she would go to north Bengal tomorrow to monitor the situation from Siliguri.
A crisis-management group has been formed and all district magistrates in the state have been alerted. A control room has also been opened, she said.
S Suresh, principal secretary to the disaster management department, is leaving for north Bengal, she added.
