Hundreds feared dead in India quake
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Scenes from the Republic Day earthquake
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NEW DELHI, India -- Hundreds of people are dead in India after one of the worst earthquakes in half a century struck the country as it was celebrating Republic Day.
The quake, which hit as India was marking the 51st anniversary of its transition to a republic, was described as having a magnitude of 7.9 and a depth of 23.6 kilometers, according to the U.S. National Earthquake Information Center.
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CNN's Satinder Bindra: Death rate increasing by the hour
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India's Home Minister L K Advani on the known extent of damage
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It struck at 8:46 a.m. Indian time (0316 GMT). The epicenter was the Rann of Kutch, a desert plateau in western India near the border with Pakistan.
Most of the reported deaths were in the arid western state of Gujarat, but no official figures have been released.
Local officials told CNN's New Delhi correspondent Satinder Bindra that at least 375 people had died -- but they expected that the death toll could go much higher.
A senior Gujarat state official, Home Minister Haren Pandya told The Associated Press that 130 people had been reported dead in that state alone.
"We are tackling the situation on a war footing," Pandya told a news channel, adding that 100 buildings had collapsed over Gujarat. There were also reports of mine cave-ins, train derailments, broken water pipes, and downed power and phone lines.
He said the army was on alert and a rapid force had been called in to help dig through the rubble.
The Meteorological Department in New Delhi said the earthquake was India's biggest since 1956.
Shortly after attending Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called an emergency federal Cabinet meeting for Friday evening to assess the quake's impact.
Reports across India
Reports of damage and casualties came streaming in during the day.
In the Gujarat city of Surat, 18 bodies were pulled from the rubble of three buildings and 40 were hospitalized, 300 kilometers (185 miles) southeast of the quake's epicenter, a police official said.
Local police commissioner Vineet Gupta said three others were killed in Surat in a stampede at a diamond factory, when workers crowded into a narrow stairwell to push their way out of the only exit.
In Bombay, the Indian financial and entertainment capital, 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) southwest of New Delhi, some people in high-rise buildings held onto doorways as they watched their pictures and cupboards shake, while others people rushed into the streets.
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An Indian resident suffers wounds from the quake
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It was the same in Madras, on the eastern coast, and in Pondicherry, farther to the south, where people began fleeing a Republic Day parade in panic until officials on loudspeakers calmed them.
Millions of Hindu pilgrims attending the Kumbh Mela festival in the eastern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, felt the ground sway beneath them, but there was no panic reported.
Republic Day goes ahead
Meanwhile Republic Day festivities in New Delhi went ahead despite the quake amid the tightest security in years following threats from Pakistan-based Muslim separatists against India's top leadership.
Residents of the capital endured about a minute of shaking. The temblor hit just before the parade, where thousands of police and soldiers were on alert against a terrorist attack.
No injuries were reported at the parade, which was attended by India's top government and military leaders and foreign guests.
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Republic Day celebrations rocked by quake
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Prime Minister Vajpayee visited the India Gate Friday morning, before embarking on the 52nd Republic Day parade, a 13-kilometre route along Raj Path, a tree-lined avenue which cuts an elegant swathe through the center of the city.
The celebrations went ahead amid the tightest security ever after threats from Pakistani militants against senior Cabinet ministers and even the prime minister, CNN's New Delhi correspondent Satinder Bindra reported.
The route was flanked by 55,000 Delhi police on full alert and 10,000 armed commandos, he said.
Bomb disposal experts, sniffer dogs and helicopters were also keeping vigil at vulnerable landmarks, notorious criminals were under watch and security at both the international and domestic airports was stepped up.
Republic Day, marking India's transition to a democratic republic after independence from Britain in 1947, is often marred by violence in the bitterly disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir and the country's insurgency-torn northeastern states.
The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.
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