At least 128 people were killed and dozens injured in Nepal when a powerful earthquake struck the western Jajarkot region, officials said on Saturday, as homes in the area collapsed and buildings as far away as New Delhi in neighboring India shook.
The earthquake struck at 11:47 p.m. Friday with a magnitude of 6.4, Nepal’s National Seismological Center said.
The German Geoscience Research Center measured the quake at 5.7, down from 6.2, while the US Geological Survey pegged it at 5.6.
The earthquake was the deadliest since 2015 when about 9,000 people were killed in two earthquakes in the Himalayan country.
Entire cities, centuries-old temples and other historic sites were then reduced to rubble, with over a million homes destroyed, at an economic cost of $6 billion.
Officials fear the death toll in Friday’s earthquake may rise because they are unable to establish contact in the hilly area near the epicenter, about 300 miles west of the capital Kathmandu, where tremors were also felt.
The district has a population of 190,000 with villages scattered in remote hilly areas.
Entire cities, centuries-old temples and other historic sites were later reduced to rubble, with more than a million houses destroyed, at an economic cost of $6 billion.ZUMAPRESS.com Parts of damaged houses stand behind the rubble of destruction in Jajarkot Saturday morning following the earthquake.ZUMAPRESS. com
“The number of injured may reach hundreds and the death toll may also rise,” Jajarkot district official Harish Chandra Sharma told Reuters by phone.
Police spokesman Kuber Kadayat said 92 people were killed in Jajarkot and 36 in the neighboring district of Rukum Barat, both in the Karnali region.
The epicenter was in the village of Ramidanda.
At least 85 people were injured in Rukum West and 55 in Jajarkot, an official at the prime minister’s office said, while Sharma said at least 50 people were in hospital in Jajarkot alone.
“Many houses collapsed, many more cracked. “Thousands of residents spent the night in cold open spaces because they were too scared to go inside the cracked houses when the aftershocks hit,” Sharma said. “I couldn’t get in myself.”
At least 85 people were injured in Rukum West (pictured) and 55 in Jajarkot, an official at the prime minister’s office said, while Sharma said at least 50 people were in hospital in Jajarkot alone.Xinhua/Shutterstock
Search and rescue must clear roads blocked by landslides, triggered by the earthquake, to reach the affected areas, police officer Namaraj Bhattarai said.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal flew to the area early Saturday with 16 members of a military medical team to oversee search, rescue and relief efforts, her office said.
Dahal, who posted on social media platform X, expressed deep grief over the loss of life and property in the earthquake and directed security agencies to launch immediate rescue and relief operations.
Local media footage showed the collapsed facade of the multi-storey brick house, with large pieces of furniture strewn about.
Officials fear the death toll in Friday’s earthquake may rise because they have been unable to establish contact in the hilly area near the epicenter, about 300 miles west of the capital Kathmandu, where tremors were also felt. AFP via Getty Images Survivors wait in a corridor at the Jajarkot district hospital after the earthquake that struck Nepal on Friday, November 3, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
Video on X showed people running into the streets as several buildings were evacuated.
“The house has collapsed. People flocked out of their homes. I was outside in a crowd of terrified residents. We are trying to find the details of the damage,” police officer Santosh Rokka said over phone.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
