Headlines
World rushes aid to Nepal amid 2,300 deaths, new tremblors
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By Anil GiriKathmandu, April 26
Another tremblor measuring
6.9 on the Richter scale shook Nepal on Sunday causing fresh panic as
rescuers pulled out bodies from debris, a day after a 7.9 magnitude
earthquake left over 2,300 dead and forced tens of thousands to spend
the night on the streets.
As the world rushed emergency aid to
Kathmandu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over a high-level
meeting in New Delhi after saying: "I can understand what the people of
Nepal are going through... My dear brothers and sisters of Nepal, we are
with you."
The home ministry put the fatalities from Saturday's
powerful quake at 2,309 and said another 5,850 people were injured. It
is the worst quake to hit Nepal after one in 1934 killed some 8,500
people.
Fearing the continuing aftershocks, many thousands of
people spent Saturday night out in the open. Many lay on plastic sheets
or cardboard boxes wrapped in blankets. Most ate instant noodles and
cookies to ward off the hunger.
Hospitals grappled with soaring
number of injuries, the doctors and nurses working non-stop. A UN
statement said hospitals were running out of rooms to store bodies and
emergency supplies.
The government declared a national calamity
and closed down all schools and colleges for a week as it tried to come
to grips with a disaster which has enveloped 30 out of 75 districts,
including the Kathmandu Valley, a tourist paradise.
Even as an
army of soldiers, police personnel and other officials were frantically
engaged in relief work, another powerful tremblor occurred on Sunday
afternoon, causing aftershocks again in India, Bhutan and Tibet.
The
epicentre of Sunday's earthquake was about 110 km from Kathmandu. It
was shallower, at 10 km, compared to the Saturday temblor whose
epicentre lay at a depth of 15 km. Saturday's epicentre lay in Lamjung,
about 75 km northwest of Kathmandu.
Thirty-five aftershocks have hit the country since the first earthquake.
The
UN office here said around 6.6 million people have been affected in the
Himalayan nation. The quake sparked an avalanche in the Mount Everest
area, killing scores of mountaineers.
The disaster appeared to
spare none, VVIPs included. President Ram Baran Yadav spent Saturday
night in a tent with his many guards after the quake caused several
cracks in his office-cum-residence.
"President Yadav is still in his tent," an official told IANS.
The
main entrance to the residence of Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, who
hurriedly returned to Nepal from Indonesia on Sunday, was also damaged.
So were several government offices in Kathmandu.
Worse, scores of
ancient monuments and Hindu temples were destroyed or suffered varying
degrees of damage, with one expert lamenting that some of them can never
be restored to their original glory.
"We have launched a
massive rescue and rehabilitation action plan," Information and
Broadcasting Minister Minendra Rijal said. "Our country is a moment of
crisis, and we will require tremendous support and aid."
At least
723 people perished in Kathmandu alone while 205 others were killed in
Bhaktapur, just 13 km from the capital and 125 in Lalitpur, only five
kilometres away, the home ministry said.
The government has warned that the death toll was likely to rise.
The
disaster brought down historical monuments such as Dharhara tower in
Kathmandu while Basantapur Durbar Square and Patan Durbar Square were
also destroyed.
At the Dharahara tower, rescuers found some 80 bodies, officials said.
The
Kantipur Daily said around 80 percent of the temples in Basantapur
Durbar Square had been destroyed. These included the Kasthamandap
temple, Panchtale temple, the Dasa Avtar temple and Krishna Mandir.
Kasthamandap, which inspired the name Kathmandu, is a 16th century
wooden monument.
A few other monuments, including the Kumari Temple and the Taleju Bhawani, have partially collapsed.
Modi
said he had seen the 2001 earthquake in Kutch in Gujarat from close
quarters. "I can understand what the people of Nepal are going through.
My dear brothers and sisters of Nepal, we are with you."
He said
India had started reaching assistance to Nepal and sent rescue teams
with sniffer dogs to save people buried in the rubble. "For Indians,
Nepal's plight is our plight. We will wipe the tears of every Nepali,
hold their hands and give them support."
The Indian Air Force
said it will bring back 1,500 stranded Indians from Nepal on Sunday.
Some 540 people were flown back to India on Saturday and Sunday. The air
force ferried food, tents, water and medicines to Nepal.
Prime Minister Koirala has appealed to people do donate blood to save the many seriously injured.