Nepal’s new quake hell
Scores killed as second major tremor rocks stricken region
A SECOND huge earthquake hit Nepal yesterday, killing more than 50 people and sending thousands of terrified residents into the streets of the battered capital Kathmandu.
Rescue teams were last night searching collapsed buildings for survivors as families again prepared to spend nights under canvas in the open air, rather than risk sleeping in damaged homes. Hundreds were said to have been trapped in landslides in rural communities near Mount Everest.
Coming two weeks after the 7.8magnitude quake that killed more than 8,000, yesterday’s 7.3-magnitude quake was followed by several powerful aftershocks.
Witnesses said survivors ran to parks and on to the streets, many screaming in fear. Shockwaves were felt over thousands of miles and as far apart as Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and the Indian capital New Delhi, where buildings swayed for more than a minute. Helicopters were sent to mountain districts while search parties fanned out across towns and villages. Last night, the death toll had reached 54, with 1,600 injured.
In the capital, a terrified woman watched cracks appear in the walls of a hospital maternity unit while she was in labour.
Patients ran for their lives as Asha Shrestha, 29, prepared to give birth in Prashuti Griha hospital. Her relatives carried her from the room and sheltered in a tent. An hour later, Mrs Shrestha gave birth to a baby girl in an emergency room.
Her husband Bharat, 38, said: ‘We are so happy our child is safe, but Asha cannot stop worrying. Our house was an old mud house. It has collapsed completely.’
Mr Shrestha added: ‘ What do I name someone who was born in this earthquake?’ Unicef worker Rose Foley, who is in Kathmandu, said: ‘The shaking seemed to go on and on. Sitting out in the open, it felt like I was on a boat on rough seas.’ Aid worker Catherine Cowley is in Bakrang in the Gorkha District – one of the worst-hit districts in the first quake – and said residents were terrified.
‘Many houses in the villages here had already been destroyed by the last earthquake, but we saw one that had only been cracked collapse,’ she said.
‘Across Nepal, a lot of houses which were already partially damaged could fall down. The impact could be immense. But the biggest impact is fear. Everyone is scared that more buildings will collapse.’ Dr Carmen Solana, volcanologist at the University of Portsmouth, said: ‘Large earthquakes are often followed by other quakes. This is because the movement produced by the first quake adds extra stress on other faults and destabilises them: it is a chain reaction.’
A US military helicopter carrying six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers has gone missing as it delivered aid, defence officials said.
A spokesman said there had been no smoke or signs of a crash, and the helicopter may have landed in a low area with no radio coverage.