By Ken Afor
At least 128 people perished and dozens were injured in Nepal after a powerful earthquake shook Jajarkot in the west of the country on Saturday, leading to the collapse of numerous buildings and tremors felt as far away as New Delhi, India.
The National Seismological Centre in Nepal measured the quake at 6.4 in magnitude, while Germany’s Research Centre for Geosciences calculated it to be 5.7 and the U.S. Geological Survey assessed it to be 5.6.
The devastation is the worst since the 2015 earthquakes, which caused roughly 9,000 deaths, a million houses to be ruined and damaged the country’s economy to the tune of six billion dollars.
Rescue teams fear that the death toll might increase as communication to most of the isolated, mountainous parts of the area, roughly 500 km away from the capital of Kathmandu, is still missing. The population in the region totals 190,000 people spread throughout multiple villages.
“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,” Sharma said.
Police Officer Namaraj Bhattarai said search and rescue must clear roads blocked by landslides triggered by the earthquake in order to reach the affected areas.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who went to the same area early on Saturday accompanied by a 16-member army medical team, expressed his deep sorrow about the loss of life and property caused by the disaster in a post on the X social media platform.
He also commanded security agencies to initiate rescue and relief operations. According to local media footage, multi-storied brick houses were destroyed and furniture was scattered around.
Videos from X revealed scenes where people were seen running out of the buildings as they were being 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.
