Updated 03:11
4/11/2023, 01:12
A large earthquake with a magnitude of over six degrees hit the western Nepal region on Friday. At least 128 people lost their lives, hundreds more were injured. Buried roads cut off the affected areas from the world.
The tremors began around midnight local time (after 7:00 p.m.) in the Jajarkot district in the Kamáli region, the tremors were also felt by residents of the capital city of Kathmandu and in the Indian capital of New Delhi, about 600 kilometers away, Reuters reported.
Nepal’s National Seismological Center said the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.4, while the German and US Geological Surveys put it slightly lower. The epicenter was supposed to be at a depth of less than twenty kilometers below the surface.
According to the authorities, at least 128 people died in the collapsed buildings, and hundreds more are injured. The number of victims will probably increase. It has not yet been possible to establish contact with the area around the epicenter in mountainous terrain, where about 190,000 inhabitants live in scattered villages. And rescuers can’t get there because of buried roads.
“I am outside alone. We are gathering details but because of the cold and the night, it is difficult to get information from remote areas,” Suresh Sunar, a Jajarkot district official, told Reuters by phone. Fragments of information speak of collapsed houses and people running outside in panic.
Earthquakes in mountainous Nepal are common, according to the AP. In 2015, 7.8-magnitude earthquakes killed 9,000 people and destroyed a million buildings, including centuries-old temples and other historical monuments.
TN.cz
