More than 400 dead in Nepal earthquake

A total of 449 people have been confirmed dead in the Nepal earthquake, including 181 in Kathmandu, police have said.

More than 400 dead in Nepal earthquake

A total of 449 people have been confirmed dead in the Nepal earthquake, including 181 in Kathmandu, police have said.

The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.8 struck before noon and was most severely felt in the capital Kathmandu as well as the densely-populated Kathmandu Valley.

A magnitude-6.6 aftershock hit about an hour later and smaller aftershocks continued to ripple through the region for hours.

Dozens of people with injuries were being taken to the main hospital in central Kathmandu.

The earthquake also shook several cities across northern India and was felt as far away as Lahore in Pakistan, Lhasa in Tibet and in Dhaka, Bangladesh. There have been at least 30 deaths in neighbouring countries where the quake was felt.

The Home Ministry said in a statement that 71 people were killed in Nepal. It did not give details. Twenty people were killed in India, six in Tibet and two in Bangladesh, officials and media reports there said. China said two Chinese citizens were killed on the Nepal-China border.

A senior mountaineering guide, Ang Tshering, said an avalanche swept the face of Mount Everest after the earthquake and government officials said at least 30 people were injured.

Shallow and powerful

The quake’s epicentre was 50 miles north-west of Kathmandu and it had a depth of only seven miles, which is considered shallow in geological terms. The shallower the quake, the more destructive power it carries.

As the ground began to shake, several buildings collapsed in the centre of the capital, the ancient Old Kathmandu, including centuries-old temples and towers, said resident Prachanda Sual.

Among them was the Dharahara Tower, one of Kathmandu’s landmarks built by Nepal’s royal rulers in the 1800s and a Unesco-recognised historical monument. It was reduced to rubble and there were reports of people trapped underneath.

A valley of 2.5 million

The Kathmandu Valley is densely populated with nearly 2.5 million people and the quality of buildings is often poor.

While the extent of the damage and the scale of the disaster are yet to be ascertained, the quake will likely put a huge strain on the resources of the country.

The economy of Nepal, a nation of 27.8 million people, is heavily dependent on tourism, principally trekking and Himalayan mountain climbing.

In Kathmandu, dozens of people were gathered in the car park of Norvic International Hospital, where thin mattresses were spread on the ground for patients rushed outside, some wearing hospital pyjamas.

A woman with a bandage on her head sat in a set of chairs pulled from the hospital waiting room.

Doctors and nurses had hooked up some patients to IV drops in the parking lot, or were giving people oxygen.

The US Geological Survey revised the magnitude from 7.5 to 7.9 but then lowered it to 7.8. It said the quake hit at 11.56am local time (6.11am GMT) at Lamjung.

A magnitude seven quake is capable of widespread and heavy damage while an eight magnitude quake can cause tremendous damage.

The earthquake – the same magnitude as the one that hit San Francisco in 1906 - was 22 times more powerful than the quake that devastated Haiti in 2010.

'All the houses around me tumbled down'

A Swedish woman, Jenny Adhikari, who lives in Nepal, told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that she was riding a bus in the town of Melamchi when the earth began to move.

“A huge stone crashed only about 20 metres from the bus,” she was quoted as saying.

“All the houses around me have tumbled down. I think there are lot of people who have died,” she told the newspaper by telephone. Melamchi is about 30 miles north-east of Kathmandu.

The sustained quake also was felt in India’s capital of New Delhi. AP reporters in Indian cities of Lucknow in the north and Patna in the east also reported strong tremors.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a meeting of top government officials to review the damage and disaster-preparedness in parts of India that felt strong tremors.

The Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Sikkim, which share a border with Nepal, have reported building damage. There have also been reports of damage in the north-eastern state of Assam.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif offered “all possible help” that Nepal may need.

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