Congo depot blast: Toll rises to 200

Brazzaville, March 5: The toll in Sunday's arms depot blast here in the capital of the Republic of Congo has risen to 200, the country's presidential office said.

Citing hospital sources, an official from the presidency told Xinhua that around 200 people have been killed.

Many buildings in the city were destroyed, which forced thousands of people to flee, causing panic.

According to BBC, Defence Minister Charles Zacharie Bowao said the explosions were caused by a fire in an arms depot in the Regiment Blinde base in the riverside area of Mpila.

Bowao appeared on national TV and asked people to stay calm.

"The explosions that you have heard don't mean there is a war or a coup d'etat. Nor does it mean there was a mutiny. It is an incident caused by a fire at the munitions depot," he was quoted as saying.

Streets in the capital were littered with twisted sheets of metal and debris. An official said many people were trapped in the wreckage of a collapsed church.

Five Chinese workers died in the blast, which occurred around 8 a.m. Sunday, China's foreign ministry said early Monday.

According to the ministry's Department of Consular Affairs, the blast affected a housing project under construction by the Beijing Construction Engineering Group.

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Earthquake jolts Delhi, parts of neighbouring states

NEW DELHI: An earthquake of medium intensity jolted Delhi and its satellite towns on Monday afternoon, pulling panic-stricken people out of their homes and offices.

The tremors, measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale with Haryana's Bahadurgarh as epicentre, were felt across Delhi and its adjoining satellite towns of Ghaziabad and Noida in Uttar Pradesh at a 1:11pm, the MeT office said.

However, according to the US Geological Survey, the strength of the earthquake was measured 5.2 on the Richter scale.

The quake took place 9km below the surface. The tremors were felt for less than ten seconds.

"The intensity was 4.9 and the epicentre was Bahadurgarh, Delhi-Haryana Border," a senior MeT official said.

There were no immediate reports of any casualty. The fire brigade and police said they have not received any immediate calls of casualty or damage.

According to the Seismic Zone Mapping done by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), Delhi is among 30 cities in the country falling in zone IV, which is defined as a severe intensity seismic zone.

This is the third tremor in Delhi, which is among the 30 cities which fall in the high risk seismic zone, since September last year.

Tremors were felt in the capital on September 18 last year following an earthquake with an intensity of 6.8 on the Richter scale having its epicentre near Sikkim-Nepal border.

On September eight last year, an earthquake of 4.2 on Richter scale with Haryana's Sonepat as epicentre, had rocked the capital.

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