At least 128 people have been killed and dozens injured after a strong earthquake struck western Nepal on Friday. Witnesses said houses in the area had collapsed and buildings were shaking hundreds of miles away.
The 5.6-magnitude quake hit the far west of the Himalayan country late Friday and was measured by the US Geological Survey at just 18 kilometres (11 miles) deep.
In Jajarkot district which is near the epicentre, 92 people were confirmed dead and another 55 injured, Nepal police spokesperson Kuber Kadayat said.
The quake killed at least 36 people in neighboring Rukum district, where numerous houses collapsed. At least 85 injured people had been taken to the local hospital, he said.
Troops were also clearing roads and mountain trails that were blocked by landslides triggered by the earthquake.
“The remoteness of the districts makes it difficult for information to get through,” Karnali Province police spokesperson Gopal Chandra Bhattarai told the AFP news agency.
Bhattarai said Nepali security forces had been deployed extensively to assist with search and rescue operations.
Some roads had been blocked by damage, but we are trying to reach the area through alternate routes,” he added.
The district hospital was packed with residents bringing in injured victims.
Ramidanda, where the epicentre lies, has not been reached by authorities yet.
Videos and photos posted on social media showed locals digging through rubble in the dark to pull survivors from the wreckage of collapsed homes and buildings.
Mud houses were flattened or damaged as survivors crouched outside for safety, as the sirens of emergency vehicles wailed.
Nepal’s prime minister Pushpa Kamal expressed “his deep sorrow over the human and physical damage caused by the earthquake”.
Nepal’s National Seismological Centre said the quake occurred at 11.47pm (18.02 GMT) in Jajarkot, a district of Karnali province. Jajarkot is about 500km (310 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu.
Buildings shook as far as away New Delhi, about 600km (375 miles) away, according to witnesses who spoke to Reuters. Videos on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, showed people running into the street as some buildings were evacuated.
