Search for survivors in western Nepal after earthquake kills at least 157 people
Rescue workers in Nepal began digging through the rubble of collapsed houses with their bare hands on Saturday, searching for survivors after the country’s worst earthquake in eight years killed 157 people and shook buildings as far away as Delhi.
The 5.6-magnitude quake hit the far west of the Himalayan country late on Friday and was measured by the US Geological Survey at just 11 miles (18km) deep.
Local officials said it had not been possible to establish contact in the area near the epicentre in Jajarkot, a hilly district with a population of 190,000 and villages scattered in remote hills.
The death toll included 105 people killed in Jajarkot and 52 in the neighbouring Rukum West district, both in Karnali province, an official in the interior ministry’s disaster department told Reuters.
Officials feared the death toll could rise further, as first responders had only on Saturday reached the hilly area near the epicentre, about 500km (300 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu, to began the search for survivors.
Harish Chandra Sharma, a Jajarkot district official, said: “The number of injured could be in the hundreds and the deaths could go up as well
“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 into the cracked houses as aftershocks struck. I have myself not been able to go in.”
Local TV channels showed rescuers digging through the rubble with their bare hands looking for survivors in the debris of collapsed houses. Injured people were shown being carried to a rescue helicopter to move them to hospitals.
The 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.
His office appealed to political parties, social workers and the public to donate funds to help arrange food, water, clothes and tents for the survivors.
A small plane carrying medical supplies and health workers was diverted to nearby Surkhet after it failed to land in Chaurjahari in the Rukum district because of bad weather, said the army spokesperson Krishna Bhandari.
Local media footage showed crumbled facades of multi-storey brick houses, with large pieces of furniture scattered about. Videos on X showed people running into the street while buildings were evacuated.
Troops were also clearing roads and mountain trails that were blocked by landslides triggered by the earthquake.
“The remoteness of the districts makes it difficult for information to get through,” the Karnali province police spokesperson Gopal Chandra Bhattarai told the AFP news agency.
Bhattarai said Nepali security forces had been deployed extensively to assist with search and rescue operations.
“Some roads had been blocked by damage, but we are trying to reach the area through alternate routes,” he added.
The district hospital was packed with residents bringing in injured victims.
Ramidanda, where the epicentre lies, has not been reached by authorities yet.
Nepal’s National Seismological Centre said the earthquake occurred at 11.47pm (18.02 GMT) in Jajarkot, a district of Karnali province.
Buildings shook as far as away as Delhi, about 600km (375 miles) away, according to witnesses who spoke to Reuters.
The quake is the deadliest since 2015, when about 9,000 people were killed in two earthquakes. Whole towns, centuries-old temples and other historic sites were reduced to rubble, with more than a million houses destroyed, at a cost to the economy of $6bn £4.85bn).
News Source: The Guardian
Image Source: BBC News
