India's capital stages mass earthquake drill

Over 40,000 people in India's capital took part in the city's biggest ever earthquake drill on Wednesday as the tremor-prone city of 16 million seeks to improve its disaster preparedness.

"We want to find out how capable we are to deal with natural and man-made disasters. 'Be prepared' is the slogan for today," said R.K. Dheer, an official at the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in New Delhi.

Students and volunteers took part in the massive drill in schools, colleges, hospitals, metro stations and crowded markets.

Dheer said the city's traffic department and transport officials were also involved in diverting traffic and suspending metro services.

"All of this is being done to know how we react during a crisis," he told AFP.

Delhi is located in a high-risk seismic zone and experts have long questioned its ability to withstand a major earthquake due to lax safety standards, widespread illegal building and a lack of emergency planning.

The city is in a zone ranked four on a five-point scale by the US Geological Survey which measures how quake-prone an area is.

The Delhi government's own estimates say nine out of every 10 buildings in the city are at risk of moderate or significant quake damage. Every year, tens of thousands of housing units are built without any earthquake safety checks.

The two-hour rehearsal was the biggest ever coordinated emergency drill bringing together the police, fire officers, ambulances, volunteers and students to deal with a mock crisis, Dheer said.

"There are more than a billion people living in this country and to mitigate the damages of disasters we have to be well prepared," junior telecom minister Sachin Pilot said at the launch of new guidelines to deal with a disaster in New Delhi.

"India is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world," he said, adding that the drill would help create awareness among people.

Last September, two minor jolts sent thousands of scared residents into the streets and experts say a big one looms on the horizon.