Weeks after the country’s deadliest quake in more than 80 years, terrified residents once again fled onto the streets as houses collapsed and landslides blocked roads, hampering the relief effort.
Authorities in Nepal said at least 48 people were killed and more than 1,100 injured, while 17 people also died across the border in northern India.
The 7.3-magnitude quake struck at 12:35pm, some 76km east of Kathmandu, the US Geological Survey said, after a 7.8-magnitude quake on April 25 killed more than 8,000 people.
Tuesday’s quake was felt as far away as New Delhi, and caused buildings to collapse in Tibet in neighbouring China, killing at least one person there.
A second tremor of 6.3-magnitude struck Nepal around half an hour later, followed by yet more aftershocks, according to the USGS.
Eight people died in Kathmandu Valley and two major buildings collapsed in the capital. But Dolakha and Sindhupalchowk, two of districts worst affected by the original quake, bore the brunt of the damage. In Dolakha alone, 26 people were confirmed dead.
“Many houses have collapsed in Dolakha… there is a chance that the number of dead from the district will go up,” said Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam.
The Red Cross said it had received reports of large-scale casualties in the town of Chautara in Sindhupalchowk, where its Norwegian branch is running a field hospital.
“Hundreds of people are pouring in. They are treating dozens for injuries and they have performed more than a dozen surgeries,” said spokeswoman Nichola Jones.
An emergency tent hospital in Tatopani near the Chinese border run by the Canadian Red Cross had been damaged by a landslide, she said.
There have been several reports of landslides in the worst-hit areas, making the task of getting relief to remote communities in the mountainous country even more difficult.
Save the Children said the Gorkha region, near the epicentre of the April 25 quake, had also been hit by landslides and many key roads were blocked.
Nepalese television showed the parliament building swaying, forcing lawmakers to flee.
Regine Kopplow, a German aid worker who was in the Dolakha district headquarters of Charikot when the latest quake hit, saw huge dust clouds rise into the air as buildings collapsed.
The Nepalese government has acknowledged that it was overwhelmed by the scale of the April 25 disaster, which destroyed nearly 300,000 homes and left many more too dangerous to live in.
Kathmandu’s airport, the main entry point for flights bringing in aid, was briefly closed after Tuesday’s quake.
US copter missing
Six US Marines and two Nepalese soldiers were aboard the US Marine Corps helicopter that was declared missing on Tuesday while conducting relief efforts in earthquake-hit areas of Nepal, US Pacific Command said.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 13th, 2015.
