21 killed in tremors in Bihar

The toll in the tremors which jolted Bihar on Tuesday rose to 21 with six deaths reported today from different parts of the state, which bore the brunt of a fresh round of earthquakes along with neighbouring Nepal.
The special cell in Bihar Disaster Management department's (DMD) latest report said altogether 84 people were injured in two high intensity and a series of minor quakes yesterday.
Patna, East Champaran, Madhepura and Purnea are the worst affected districts and reported three deaths each. Two persons each died in Vaishali, Siwan and Darbhanga districts, while one each lost their lives in Sitamarhi, Khagaria and Sheikhpura districts, the DMD cell said.

DMD has rushed National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams to the affected districts to carry out rescue and relief operations, department officials said.
State meteorological department recorded seven aftershocks of mild intensity ranging from 2 to 4.7 on Richter scale today.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has been on his toes since yesterday, kept himself abreast about distribution of relief and arrangements from concerned officials throughout the day, officials said.

The earthquakes, he told inaugurating a conference 'Disaster Risk Reduction', have provided a warning and appealed to the people to abide by the building construction bylaws as the state was highly prone to earthquakes.

"We will all die for sure, but why commit suicide," he said and asked citizens to be alert and not to panic.
All government and private schools in the state have been closed for summer vacation from today on the direction of Kumar, who termed it as a precautionary measure.
The fresh tremors yesterday brought back the memories of the April 25 temblor in which 58 persons had died in Bihar.