Over 140 Killed in Nepal Earthquake

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Nov 4: At least 140 people were killed and dozens injured after a massive earthquake hit a remote region of Nepal on Friday past midnight.

An equal number of people were injured in the incident. The death toll is likely to rise. Deputy Mayor Sarita Singh of Nalgadh Municipality in Jajarkot was among those killed in the quake, officials said.

Strong tremors of the 6.4 magnitude earthquake were felt as far as New Delhi, nearly 550 kilometres from the epicentre. Strong tremors were also felt in several districts of Bihar including Patna, Katihar, Motihari and few other districts along the India-Nepal border. However, no loss of life or damage to property was reported in the state, officials said on Saturday.

In Nepal, several houses in Jajarkot were flattened or damaged when the earthquake hit late on Friday night. Videos from the spot showed crumbled facades of multi-storied brick houses, with large pieces of furniture scattered.

Local TV channels showed rescuers digging through the rubble with their bare hands looking for survivors in the debris of collapsed houses. Injured people were shown being carried to a rescue helicopter to move them to hospitals. “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 damages,” police official Santosh Rokka said.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal flew to the area early on Saturday with a 16-member army medical team to oversee search, rescue and relief, his office said. Both Nepal Army and Nepal Police personnel have been mobilized to carry out rescue works, officials said.

Nepal lies on a major geological faultline where the Indian tectonic plate pushes up into the Eurasian plate, forming the Himalayas, and earthquakes are a regular occurrence. Nearly 9,000 people died in 2015 when a 7.8-magnitude quake struck Nepal, destroying more than half a million homes. Six people died in November 2022 when a 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck Doti district, near Jajarkot.

Rescue work was likely to be slow as emergency teams must first clear roads blocked by landslides in many places, they said, adding that helicopters and small planes have been asked to be ready to join the effort.

Jajarkot district official Harish Chandra Sharma said: “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 in into the cracked houses as aftershocks struck,” Sharma said. “I have myself not been able to go in.”

His office appealed to political parties, social workers and the public to donate funds to help arrange food, water, clothes and tents for the survivors. A small aeroplane carrying medical supplies and health workers was diverted to nearby Surkhet after it failed to land in Chaurjahari in nearby Rukum district due to bad weather, said army spokesman Krishna Bhandari.

Bheri, Nalgad, Kushe, Barekot and Chedagad have been severely hit by the earthquake in Jajarkot district. Chief District Officer Suresh Sunar said all the security forces in the district have been mobilised in the search and rescue work.

Bheri Hospital, Kohalpur Medical College, Nepalgunj Military Hospital and Police Hospital have been made dedicated hospitals. All the helicopter operators of Nepal have been asked to be on standby and instructions have been given to cancel regular flights and evacuate the injured from earthquake-affected areas to other regions.

“We have information that there have been human and physical damages in two districts because of the quake, and security forces have been mobilised for rescue work,” said Nepal’s Home Ministry spokesman Nararyan Prasad Bhattarai, adding numbers were still unconfirmed. Officials have been asked to deploy ambulances at all times near the helipad of Nepalgunj Airport and military barracks.

While rescue operations are on, officials are facing difficulties establishing contact with areas in Jajarkot, a hilly district with a population of 190,000 and villages scattered in remote hills.

“The remoteness of the districts makes it difficult for information to get through. Some roads had been blocked by damage, but we are trying to reach the area through alternate routes,” Karnali Province police spokesman Gopal Chandra Bhattarai said. Nepal has also deployed the army to assist with the search and rescue operations.

At the regional hospital in the city of Nepalgunj, more than 100 beds were made available and teams of doctors stood by to help the injured. “I was fast asleep when all of a sudden it started shaking violently. I tried to run but the whole house collapsed. I tried escaping but half my body got buried in the debris,” said Bimal Kumar Karki, one of the first two people to be brought to the regional hospital. “I screamed, but every one of my neighbors were in the same situation and screaming for help. It took nearly a half-hour to an hour before rescuers found me,” he said.

A 4.5 magnitude tremor hit at 12.08 am, 4.2 at 12.029, 4.3 at 12.35 and 4.6 at 4.16 am, according to the National Earthquake Monitoring Centre.