印度救援人员正赶往地震灾区

 

More than 70 people were killed, at least 40 of them in Sikkim. The quake was felt elsewhere in India, as well as in Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan.

 

Some 6,000 troops have been deployed² in the north-eastern state to dig through mudslides and clear away rubble³ in an effort to reach cut-off villages.

 

Hundreds of people spent a second night in the open as aftershocks continued.

 

In the immediate⁴ aftermath of the quake heavy rains and landslides⁵ held up the relief effort. But a break in the poor weather meant that army helicopters were able to drop food supplies and transport medical teams to some affected⁶ areas.

 

 

Nevertheless, officials say the biggest challenge is reaching those villages in the most isolated⁷ areas of the mountainous state amid fears that people may still be trapped under debris⁸.

 

Convoys⁹ of vehicles left the state capital Gangtok on Tuesday morning but the AFP news agency says that progress was tortuously¹⁰（弯曲地） slow along precarious¹¹（危险的） , badly-damaged roads.

 

The earthquake triggered numerous landslides which crushed homes and blocked roads. 

 

Troops and road workers managed to restore the main highway linking Sikkim with the rest of India. 

 

But elsewhere soldiers and emergency teams were using explosives to try to force their way through blocked roads. 

 

"I've been here for six hours, waiting for the army to clear the road," Pema Doma, who was waiting for news of her parents and son in the Mangan area, told AFP. 

 

"I'd walk if they would let me," Doma said. "The anxiety is killing¹² me. What if he's screaming for me? What if he's calling for me and I can't even hear him?"

 

The death toll¹³ from the area is expected to rise Indian Home Secretary RK Singh told reporters.

 

"There may still be villages where people are trapped under collapsed houses that we have not been able to reach," he said.

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