At Least 38 People Killed, Nearly 1,000 Injured by Earthquake in Central India

BHOPAL, India —  An early morning earthquake struck central India on Thursday, killing at least 38 people and injuring nearly 1,000, Press Trust of India news agency said.

The quake, measuring magnitude 6, hit at 4:22 a.m. near Jabalpur, a city of 1 million in the state of Madhya Pradesh, according to the seismological observatory in New Delhi, the capital.

Mud walls in some poor areas of Jabalpur tumbled, crushing victims underneath, and many buildings in the city suffered damage.

Press Trust of India said the quake shook 15 towns across the state for 10 seconds.

Rescue workers searched through debris using bulldozers, shovels and their bare hands.

“I heard a loud roar,” lawyer Vivek Thanka said. “The house was shaking so much, I thought the entire house would cave in.”

In Kosamghat, a village at the quake’s epicenter, 12 miles southeast of Jabalpur, all 50 huts collapsed.

No one was killed because the villagers were sleeping outside in the stifling summer heat.

Hospitals struggled to cope with the injured.

“People are streaming in from the villages, and they are being treated free of cost in hospitals,” one official said.

Jabalpur is home to a defense ordnance factory and the state Supreme Court.