KATHMANDU: On Friday, November 3, a powerful earthquake struck the northern region of Jajarkot, killing at least 128 people and injuring dozens more. According to witnesses, the area’s homes collapsed and shook buildings as far as New Delhi, India.
The German Research Centre for Geosciences ( GFZ ) later downgraded the magnitude to 5.7, and the United States Geological Survey pegged it as a magnitude 5.6. The National Seismological Centre of Nepal reported the earthquake as magnitude 6. 4.
Since 2015, when on 9, 000 people were killed in two tremors in the Himalayan nation, the earthquake is the deadliest. At a cost to the US economy of$ 6 billion, entire towns, centuries-old churches, and other traditional places were destroyed at that time, along with more than one million homes.
Since they had been unable to identify contact in the mountainous region near the core, about 500 km north of the capital Kathmandu, where tremors were even felt, officials feared the death toll in Friday’s earthquake might increase. There are 190,000 people living in the area, with villages dispersed in distant hills.
Harish Chandra Sharma, a city official in Jajarkot, told Reuters over the phone that” the number of injured could be in the thousands and the fatalities may go away as well.”
In Jajarkot and the nearby Rukum West area, both in the Karnali responsibility, 92 people were killed, according to police spokeswoman Kuber Kadayat. The Ramidanda community served as the centre.
According to a government official in the prime minister’s office, at least 85 people were hurt in Rukum West and 55 in Jajarkot, while Sharma claimed that only 50 patients were being treated in facilities there.
” Some homes have collapsed, and many more have developed holes. According to Sharma, thousands of residents spent the entire day in the chilly, open basis because they were too afraid to enter the damaged homes as the aftershocks hit. ” I myself haven’t been able to enter.”
To get to the affected areas, search and rescue teams had certain roads that have been blocked by landslides brought on by the disaster, according to police official Namaraj Bhattarai.
According to his company, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal arrived in the area early on Saturday with a 16-person military skilled staff to handle research, rescue, and relief.
Dahal expressed his profound grief over the loss of life and property in the earthquake in a post on the X social media platform and gave protection organizations the go-ahead to begin immediate rescue and relief efforts.
Local media film revealed multi-story brick homes with crumbling walls and large pieces of furniture strewn about. As some houses were evacuated, people were seen running into the city in movies on X.
” Homes have disintegrated. Folks hastened out of their residences. I am outside among the terrified locals. Santosh Rokka, a police officer, said over the phone,” We are trying to find details of damage.”
According to Reuters testimony, the earthquake shook structures 600 kilometers away in New Delhi. As some houses were evacuated, people were seen running into the city in movies on X.