No fewer than 128 people were killed and dozens injured in Nepal when a strong earthquake struck the western area of Jajarkot, officials said on Saturday, as houses in the area collapsed and buildings as far as New Delhi in neighbouring India shook.
The magnitude-6.4 quake struck at 11:47 p.m. (1802 GMT) on Friday, according to Nepal’s National Seismological Centre. The quake was estimated at 5.7 by the German Research Centre for Geosciences, down from 6.2 by the US Geological Survey.
The quake is the deadliest since 2015, when two earthquakes in the Himalayan country killed almost 9,000 people. The destruction of entire cities, centuries-old temples, and other historic sites, as well as more than a million residences, cost the economy $6 billion.
Officials were concerned that the death toll from Friday’s earthquake might climb because they had been unable to establish contact in the steep area around the epicentre, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) west of Kathmandu, where tremors were also reported. The district has a population of 190,000 people, with communities scattered over the hills.
“The number of injured could be in the hundreds, and the deaths could go up as well,” Jajarkot district official Harish Chandra Sharma told Reuters by phone.
According to Kuber Kadayat, a police official, 92 people were killed in Jajarkot and 36 in the adjoining Rukum West district, both in Karnali province. Ramidanda village served as the epicentre.
An official in the prime minister’s office stated at least 85 people were injured in Rukum West and 55 in Jajarkot, while Sharma said at least 50 people were hospitalized in Jajarkot alone.
“Many houses have collapsed; many others have developed cracks. Thousands of residents spent the entire night on cold, open grounds because they were too scared to go into the cracked houses as aftershocks struck,” Sharma said. “I have not been able to go in.”
To reach the affected districts, search and rescue teams must remove roads obstructed by landslides caused by the earthquake, according to police official Namaraj Bhattarai.
According to his office, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal rushed to the area early Saturday with a 16-member army medical team to oversee search, rescue, and relief efforts.
Dahal expressed deep grief for the loss of life and property in the quake in a post on the X social media platform and directed security authorities to initiate rapid rescue and relief operations.
Local television images showed the crumbling façade of multi-story brick residences, as well as massive pieces of furniture scattered about. As some buildings were evacuated, videos on X showed people dashing into the street.
“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 the damage,” police official Santosh Rokka said by phone.
