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Officials fear toll could cross 16,000: UNI

Even as the people are trying to pick up the threads of their shattered life in the earthquake-rocked areas of Gujarat, rumours, fresh tremors and a real quake of moderate intensity horrified them on Sunday morning, while officials maintained that the death toll could cross the 16,000 mark in the state.

At around 0640 hours, wearied people in Ahmedabad and several other places were jolted from their slumber by a quake of 5.9 magnitude on the Richter Scale, the biggest aftershock among the 200-odd Gujarat has suffered since the mega-quake of 7.9 intensity on Republic Day.

Rumours of fresh quakes being 'predicted' had sent them scurrying out to the open spaces yesterday also but Sunday morning's shock was for real. Official sources said the epicentre of the fresh quake was located 50 to 60 km north-east of Bhuj in Kutch district.

Following this fresh quake, the state government cautioned the people not to stay in quake-weakened houses as teams of structural engineers were being sent to certify liveable buildings.

Meanwhile, even as relief work was being speeded up all over the state, officials maintained that the death toll could cross the 16,000 mark as rubble being cleared in Kutch and Ahmedabad, the most affected districts, had begun to show up more and more bodies.

Ahmedabad is in grief as the bodies, each narrating its own story, were being taken to the crematoria but there were few to mourn those who died in Kutch district where nearly one lakh people were still believed to be trapped in debris.

Hospitals were full of patients but lacked enough medicines, staff or equipment. In Ahmedabad's Vadilal Sarabhai hospital, many hospitalised patients had to make way for the newcomers either because of the lack of attention or due to overcrowding. In Bhuj, the problem was even more severe because the civil hospital itself collapsed, burying in its rubble doctors, nurses and patients along with equipment. Tents had been pitched in the quake-ravaged Bhuj for performing operations.

UNI

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