2023-11-04 03:58:41
At the Jajarkot hospital after the earthquake which hit this town in western Nepal. November 4, 2023. BALKUMAR SHARMA / AFP
At least 119 people were killed and around a hundred others injured in an earthquake that shook a region of western Nepal, Nepalese police said on Saturday morning (November 4). The 5.6 magnitude earthquake was measured at a depth of 18 km according to the American Geological Survey USGS. It hit the far western Himalayan country late Friday evening. Its epicenter was located 42 km south of Jumla district, not far from the border with Tibet.
“The death toll stands at 119 dead and at least 100 injured”Gopal Chandra Bhattarai, police spokesperson for Karnali province, where at least two districts were affected by the earthquake, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “The isolation of districts makes it difficult to transmit information”he added.
Videos and photos posted on social media show residents digging through rubble in the dark to extract survivors from collapsed buildings. It shows destroyed or damaged mud houses and survivors outside to protect themselves from possible further collapses, while emergency vehicle sirens blare. Moderate tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi, the capital of India located nearly 500 km from the epicenter.
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In Nepal, the districts of Jajarkot and Rukum West, south of the epicenter, have so far been the most affected in the border province of Karnali. In Jajarkot, “26 people died and many were injured”declared to AFP Suresh Sunar, head of the district, who fears that the toll will be heavier. “It’s still dark and it’s very difficult to get all the information”he added, “the toll could increase”. The area hospital was stormed by residents transporting injured people there.
In the neighboring district of Rukum West, at least 36 people died and 85 injured, local police chief Namraj Bhattarai told AFP. “We are working on relief operations”he added.
Nearly 9,000 dead in 2015 Nepal earthquake
The Kathmandu government deployed security forces to assist in the relief efforts. “We have information indicating human and material damage in two districts due to the earthquake” Or “Security forces were mobilized for relief operations”, said Nararyan Prasad Bhattarai, spokesperson for the interior ministry. The human toll is not confirmed at this stage, he added.
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Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal expressed “his deep sadness for the human and physical damage caused by the earthquake”. The tremor was followed several hours later by aftershocks of magnitude 4 in the same area, according to the USGS.
Earthquakes are common in Nepal, which lies on a major geological fault where the Indian tectonic plate pushes into the Eurasian plate, forming the Himalayan range.
Nearly 9,000 people died in 2015 when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, destroying more than half a million homes and 8,000 schools.
Hundreds of monuments and royal palaces, including sites in the Kathmandu Valley listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracting tourists from all over the world, had suffered irreversible damage.
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