Death toll climbs toward 2,000 after Kathmandu quake

Powerful earthquake hits Nepal A strong aftershock rattled Nepal on Sunday, causing panic a day after the most powerful earthquake to strike the country in 80 years killed hundreds of people across the region and sparked an avalanche on Mt Everest.

Nepali officials put the death toll at more than 1,900 by Sunday morning, mostly in the Kathmandu valley.

At least 17 people were killed and more than 60 injured when an avalanche triggered by the earthquake buried part of the Everest base camp, Reuters reported.

Hundreds more people are believed to be trapped under rubble, and information from the epicentre of Saturday's earthquake between Kathmandu and Pokhara was scarce.

Helicopters were despatched to search for casualties, while neighbouring India and China were among the first to send teams to help rescue efforts.

India said it had sent a transport aircraft with rescue workers and supplies to Kathmandu and would deploy eight helicopters on Sunday. "The Nepalese government has asked for help with rescue teams, medical teams, and help in damage assessment," said S. Jaishankar, foreign secretary.

Bimal Phnuyal, ActionAid Nepal's director, said the death rate was increasing fast as news trickled in from outlying areas while hospitals were dealing with appalling trauma and crush injuries.

According to the US Geological Survey, Saturday's earthquake occurred just before midday in Nepal, with a magnitude of 7.9, between Pokhara and Kathmandu at a depth of 15km. It was felt as far away as New Delhi 1,000km to the west.

Sunday's aftershock, which had a magnitude of 6.7, according to the USGS, was the strongest of a number felt since Saturday's quake, and also shook buildings in New Delhi.

Ratna Shakya, a painter who owns a Tibetan art shop in Kathmandu's Durbar Square, said he witnessed the collapse of several historic monuments after which he closed his store and ran away. "There was dirt and dust everywhere and people were running around but everywhere I passed on my motorcycle I saw some damage," he said.

Lex Kassenberg, Care International's country director for Nepal said the number of dead and injured was expected to rise dramatically as more information became available. "This is going to require huge resources to respond," he said.

One of the buildings that collapsed in Kathmandu was the Dharara Tower, built in 1832. It was open to visitors at the time and dozens were said to have been crushed.

In Lalitpur, tourists at the Summit and Greenwich hotels were in the grounds, some with their suitcases packed and ready to head to the airport, which has remained closed to commercial flights since the earthquake.

There were also reports of deaths in the districts around the epicentre of the quake in the foothills of Mount Manaslu, west of Kathmandu. The government said it had reports of damage from 20 of Nepal's 75 districts.

In Kathmandu, people gathered in open spaces and streets after the first jolt and during repeated aftershocks.

"We've been feeling tremors for four hours. I just felt another big jolt, " said Prajana Pradhan, who was helping co-ordinate the emergency response for Care International, a humanitarian agency.

The densely populated capital and its often shoddily constructed buildings have long been regarded as vulnerable to earthquakes, and experts had expressed fears of a "big one" for some time.

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"There is a whole population in Nepal that are living in abject poverty," said Janice Miller, chief executive of Kidasha, a UK charity that works with children in Nepal. "The impacts for them could be quite catastrophic."

She added: "New buildings are built in Nepal and in the latter years there have been a lot of focus on making them earthquake-proof. It is the older buildings that are being damaged . . . The communications are always very poor. Getting anywhere is Nepal is pretty difficult . . . How are the emergency services going to get there?"

The tremors were felt across the northern India, Bangladesh, China's region of Tibet and Pakistan, but of the more than 1,900 casualties, all but 60 were in Nepal, the Associated Press reported. The number of injured in Nepal was more than 5,000.

Nepal and northern India are particularly prone to earthquakes, with the Himalayas still being formed by the massive force of the Indian subcontinent heading inexorably northwards in a slow-motion collision with Eurasia.

A 1934 earthquake caused immense damage in Nepal and Bihar in northern India, and 20,000 died in the Gujarat earthquake of 2001.

Additional reporting by Avantika Chilkoti

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