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Survivors are seen at a corridor of the Jajarkot district hospital in the aftermath of an earthquake in Jajarkot on 4 November 2023.
- A magnitude 6.4 earthquake
struck the western area of Jajarkot in Nepal, killing at least 128 people. - The quake is the deadliest
since 2015 when 9 000 people were killed in two earthquakes in the country. - Officials fear the death toll could rise as
they have not been able to establish contact in the hilly area near the
epicentre.
At
least 128 people were killed and dozens injured in Nepal when a strong
earthquake struck the western area of Jajarkot, officials said on Saturday, as
houses in the area collapsed and buildings as far as New Delhi in neighbouring
India shook.
The
quake occurred at 23:47 (18:02 GMT) on Friday with a magnitude 6.4, Nepal’s
National Seismological Centre said. The German Research Centre for Geosciences
measured the quake at 5.7, downgrading it from 6.2, while the US Geological
Survey pegged it at 5.6.
The
quake is the deadliest since 2015 when about 9 000 people were killed in two
earthquakes in the Himalayan country. Whole towns, centuries-old temples and
other historic sites were reduced to rubble then, with more than a million
houses destroyed, at a cost to the economy of $6 billion.
Officials
feared the death toll in Friday’s quake could rise as they had not been able to
establish contact in the hilly area near the epicentre, some 500 km (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 hills.
“The
number of injured could be in the hundreds and the deaths could go up as
well,” Jajarkot district official Harish Chandra Sharma told Reuters by
phone.
Police
spokesperson Kuber Kadayat said 92 people were killed in Jajarkot and 36 in
neighbouring Rukum West district, both in Karnali province. The epicentre was
in the village of Ramidanda.
At
least 85 people were injured in Rukum West and 55 in Jajarkot, an official in
the prime minister’s office said, while Sharma said at least 50 people were in
hospitals in Jajarkot alone.
“Many
houses have collapsed, many others have developed cracks. Thousands of
residents spent the entire night in cold, open grounds because they were too
scared to go in into the cracked houses as aftershocks struck,” Sharma
said. “I have myself not been able to go in.”
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 on Saturday with a 16-member
army medical team to oversee search, rescue and relief, his office said.
Dahal,
posting on the X social media platform, expressed deep sorrow at the loss of
life and property in the quake and ordered security agencies to launch
immediate rescue and relief operations.
Local
media footage showed crumbled facades of multi-storied brick houses, with large
pieces of furniture scattered. Videos on X showed people running into the
street as some buildings were evacuated.
“Houses
have collapsed. People rushed out of their homes. I am out in the crowd of
terrified residents. We are trying to find details of damage,” police
official Santosh Rokka said by phone.
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