The death toll from a strong earthquake that shook a Himalayan region straddling India, Nepal and Tibet climbed to 48 today as authorities tried to reach remote mountain communities to assess the full extent of damage.

 

The 6.9-magnitude quake Sunday evening caused landslides, damaged buildings and sent people rushing into the streets. The epicenter was in India's Sikkim state near borders with Nepal and China's Tibet region, but the shaking was felt across northern and eastern India and to the south in Bangladesh.

 

The quake caused at least two aftershocks of magnitude 6.1 and 5.3, Indian seismology official R.S. Dattatreyan said. At least 25 people in India's Sikkim state were killed, and more than 50 were injured, according to the state's top official, Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso. The north Indian state of West Bengal reported six deaths, and Bihar state reported three. Nepal's government said seven people died and dozens were hurt there, including two men and a child who were killed when a brick wall toppled outside the British Embassy in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.

 

In China, at least seven people were confirmed dead and 22 hurt in southern Tibet, the official Xinhua News Agency said.TV stations reported that buildings fell, sidewalks cracked and two major roads collapsed in Sikkim's state capital of Gangtok, 42 miles southeast of the quake's epicenter near the border with Nepal.