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Nepal struggles to recover from tremors; toll nears 7,000

Last updated on: May 02, 2015 17:15 IST

Fresh tremors rocked parts of Nepal today, triggering landslides as the death toll in last Saturday's devastating earthquake neared 7,000 and protests mounted over relief not reaching several affected areas.

A 5.1-magnitude aftershock shook Barpak village in Gorkha district near the epicentre of the powerful 7.9-magnitude temblor that had caused widespread destruction. A woman was injured due to the tremor that was preceded by a 4.5-magnitude aftershock, triggering panic among the people.

Image: A woman searches for her belongings in the collapsed house at Sankhu, outskirts of Kathmandu. Photograph: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

The second aftershock also led to landslides, adding to the woes of the quake-hit people, many of whom have been forced to stay in the open.

A major landslide occurred at Dolalghat between Sindupalchowk and Kawre district here. "No injuries have been reported so far," said a police official.

The death toll in Nepal's worst quake in 80 years shot up to over 6,700 and another 14,025 people injured as the government struggled to deal with the massive scale of the disaster.

The 7.9-magnitude quake last week left a trail of devastation and suffering, with people spending the cold night in the open because of fears of fresh quake.

Image: A man walks past a house which collapsed after the earthquake in Kathmandu. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Nepal's remote mountainous areas have suffered "almost total devastation" from the powerful quake, aid agencies have warned, even as relief slowly began to reach far-flung regions amid fresh aftershocks that kept people on edge.

International humanitarian bodies have called for greater urgency in relief efforts.

"One of our teams that returned from Chautara in Sindupalchowk district reported that 90 per cent of the homes are destroyed. The hospital has collapsed, and people are digging through the rubble with their hands in the hope that they might find family members who are still alive," said Jagan Chapagain, Director of Asia Pacific with the IFRC.

Image: A woman mourns as the body of her family member, who died in last Saturday's earthquake, is prepared for cremation along a river in Kathmandu. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

"We can expect the situation to be the same if not worse in many other places where aid has not yet been delivered," Chapagain said.

There are estimates that up to 40,000 homes in Sindupalchowk alone have been destroyed, the International Federation of Red Cross said in a statement.

Also, over 1,000 European Union citizens are still unaccounted for in Himalayan Nepal, diplomats said on Friday.

The Europeans had mostly been climbing in the avalanche-hit Mt Everest region and trekking in the remote Langtang range near the epicentre of the quake.