Key Points
- A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal’s western Jajarkot area.
- At least 130 people have been killed.
- Local authorities have not been able to establish contact in the hilly epicenter area.
At least 130 people were killed and dozens injured in Nepal on Friday when a strong earthquake struck the western area of Jajarkot, with witnesses saying houses in the area collapsed and buildings as far as New Delhi, India, shook.
What magnitude was the Nepal earthquake?
Nepal’s National Seismological Centre said the quake was a magnitude 6.4 but the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) later downgraded the magnitude to 5.7 and the US Geological Survey pegged it as a magnitude 5.6.
Local officials said it had not been possible to establish contact in the area near the epicenter in Jajarkot, a hilly district with a population of 190,000 and villages scattered in remote hills.
Nepal’s National Seismological Centre said the quake occurred at 11:47 pm local time in Jajarkot district of Karnali province. Jajarkot is about 500 kilometres west of the capital Kathmandu.
Nepal’s National Seismological Centre said the quake occurred at 11:47 pm local time in Jajarkot district of Karnali province. Source: Google
Local media footage showed crumbled facades of multi-storied brick houses, with large pieces of furniture scattered.
Tremors were felt in neighbouring districts and as far away as Kathmandu, residents said.
“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 damages,” police official Santosh Rokka told Reuters by phone.
How have local authorities responded to the Nepal earthquake?
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 500km 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 said.
Police spokesman 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.”
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal expressed deep sorrow at the loss of life and property in the quake and ordered security agencies to launch immediate rescue and relief operations, in a post on social media X, formerly known as Twitter.
Search and rescue must clear roads blocked by landslides, triggered by the earthquake, to reach the affected areas, police officer Namaraj Bhattarai said.
India feels Nepal earthquake
The earthquake shook buildings as far as New Delhi, about 600 km away, according to Reuters witnesses. Videos on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showed people running into the street as some buildings were evacuated.
In 2015, about 9,000 people were killed in two earthquakes in Nepal. 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 $US6 billion ($9.21 billion).
