NEW DELHI, Nov 6: Two days after 157 people were killed and dozens injured when a strong quake struck the Himalayan country, another earthquake of 5.6 magnitude struck west Nepal on Monday. Strong tremors were felt in parts of north India, the National Centre for Seismology said.
It said the epicentre for the quake was 233 kilometres north of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. The quake triggered panic among people, with many in Delhi and the National Capital Region reporting vigorous shaking of furniture. Several social media users shared visuals of people rushing out of residential buildings.
At least 157 people were killed and more than 160 were injured when a powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake, the worst since 2015, struck Nepal on Friday night and destroyed hundreds of houses in the Himalayan nation’s remote mountainous region.
Nepal lies in one of the most active tectonic zones (seismic zones IV and V) of the world, making the country extremely vulnerable to earthquakes. The death count in Friday’s earthquake in Jajarkot could rise, officials feared, as they had not been able to establish contact in the hilly area near the epicentre, 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.
The search and rescue operation was also blocked by landslides, triggered by the earthquake, which hit the roads to reach the affected areas, Nepal police officer said. Since the quake, thousands of buildings in Jajarkot and neighbouring Rukum West district have collapsed or developed cracks making them uninhabitable.
Survivors said they heard the loud noises of collapsing buildings soon after the quake struck. Local media footage showed crumbled facades of multi-storied brick houses, with large pieces of furniture scattered. Videos on X showed people running into the street as some buildings were evacuated.
The earthquake was the deadliest since 2015 when about 9,000 people were killed in two earthquakes in Nepal. 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.
(Manas Dasgupta)