Nepal earthquake kills at least 128, toll could rise, officials say
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 neighboring India shook, Reuters reports.
The quake occurred at 11:47 p.m. (1802 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 U.S. 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 epicenter, some 500 km west of the capital Kathmandu, where tremors were also felt. The district has a population of 190,000 with villages scattered in remote hills.
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