More than 150 killed in earthquake in remote western Nepal

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More than 150 killed in earthquake in remote western Nepal

More than 150 people have been killed after an earthquake struck remote western Nepal on Friday.

Security forces have been deployed to help rescue efforts in the rugged districts of Jajarkot and West Rukum, 500km (310 miles) west of Kathmandu.

Strong tremors were felt far away in the Nepalese capital and in cities in neighbouring India, including Delhi.

An army spokesman said more than 100 people had been injured. Jajarkot’s hospital is packed with the wounded.

One survivor, Geethakumari Bista, told the BBC that rescuers saved her elder daughter, but she lost her younger daughter.

“We three were in the same room on the top floor. Everything happened so suddenly. We couldn’t understand what was happening,” she recalled.

After their house collapsed, they were buried in the rubble.

“People shouted around. The armed police came and I shouted: ‘I am alive, too’… First they rescued my elder daughter by carrying her out and taking her downstairs. Unfortunately, they couldn’t save my younger one. She was 14 years old.”

Three more tremors were felt within an hour of the quake, and many people spent the rest of the night in the open because of fear of further quakes and damage to their houses.

Video footage on local media showed crumbled facades of multi-storied brick houses. People were pictured digging through rubble in the dark to pull survivors from the remains of collapsed buildings in posts on social media.

Unicef Nepal said that they were assessing the damage and the toll of the disaster on children and families.

Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal arrived in the affected region on Saturday, after expressing his “deep sorrow” at the loss of life and property wrought by the quake, on social media platform X. He said he had ordered security agencies to immediately launch rescue and relief operations.

But those search and rescue operations are being hampered by roads becoming blocked by landslides that were triggered by the quake.