Update: 15:30 -Death toll rises: 3,617 people killed
As per the latest reports, at least 3,617 people have been killed in the Nepal earthquake.
Meanwhile, rescue teams have airlifted climbers out of Mount Everest. Romanian climber Alex Gavan said on Twitter that three helicopters had reached camps 1 and 2, which are at altitudes of more than 6,000 metres (20,000 feet). Each helicopter is only capable of carrying two climbers due to the thin air, Gavan said from base camp.
Update: 13.35 – 150 Indians reached Indian border at Raxaul
At least 150 Indians who reached Indian border at Raxaul from Nepal this morning. They were sent to their homes by different trains and 10 buses were dispatched to Pokhra in the neighbouring country by Bihar government.
“The state government has facilitated journey of 150 people by trains to different locations who reached Raxaul by road from Nepal this morning,” Principal Secretary Disaster Management department Vyas Jee told.
Meanwhile Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that India will do everything possible to help Nepal. “Nepal is our neighbour and we also have cultural relations with it. We have been making all possible efforts
from our side. We had held a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister and many decisions have been taken so that we can provide the maximum help to Nepal,” he told reporters.
Update: 11.00 – Quake effected strive for normalcy
An air of uneasy calm returns to the capital, says Associated Press. The agency reports that some pharmacies, groceries and shops selling basic provisions opened while bakeries began offering fresh bread.
Update: 09.40 – The big one is yet to come!!
US Geological survey has predicted more aftershocks in the coming months. According to their website, USGS expects 3-14 aftershocks of the more than 5 magnitude on Richter scale and said that there is a 54 per cent chance of a magnitude 6 or greater aftershock.
They added that in the following month and then the following year, USGS expects several magnitude 5 and greater aftershocks, with a significant chance of magnitude 6 and greater aftershock (greater than 50 per cent). Read: The BIG one is yet to come, says experts
Update: 09:10 – Rains, fresh tremors hamper rescue works
Rains and fresh tremors tonight added misery in Nepal hampering rescuers from wading through tonnes of rubble of flattened homes and buildings to look for survivors of the earthquake that has killed over 2,500 people, including five Indians, and left more than 6,000 others injured.
With no electricity, Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, looked a ghost town with rains pounding the city, forcing the closure of the airport where chaotic scenes were witnessed with stranded foreign tourists desperate to go home.
Nepal authorities said Sunday that at least 2,430 people in that country had died in Nepal alone, not including the 18 people that the Nepal Mountaineering Association says died in an earthquake-triggered avalanche on Mount Everest. Another 61 people died from the quake in India and a few in other neighboring countries. The death toll in total has reached over 3500.
Kathmandu: Thousands of people, huddled under tents, spent yet another cold, sleepless night as aftershocks in Nepal rattled hospitals and buildings already damaged by Saturday’s earthquake that has killed more than 3,200 people, according to a senior disaster management official.
“The death toll has reached 3,218 and over 6,500 are injured,” said Rameshwor Dangal, who heads the home ministry’s national disaster management division, according to news agency AFP.
“We are overwhelmed with rescue and assistance requests from all across the country,” said Deepak Panda, a member of the country’s disaster management.
Rains that pounded Kathmandu last evening added to the misery, hampering rescuers from wading through tonnes of rubble of flattened homes and buildings to look for survivors.
A particularly big tremor of 6.7-magnitude on Sunday afternoon in Nepal, saw people running terrified into the streets. A fresh tremor of magnitude 5.4 was reported a little before 10 pm.
The aftershock in the afternoon triggered more avalanches in the Himalayas after Saturday’s 7.9 quake – which unleashed Everest’s worst disaster and was the strongest since 1934 when 8,500 people were killed.
The powerful aftershock was felt in large parts of north India too. Many in capital Delhi rushed out of buildings. In places like Darbhanga in Bihar that are close to Nepal, people reported feeling the earth shake when the fresh tremor hit on Sunday evening, and prepared for another sleepless night. More than 50 people have died in Bihar in Saturday’s powerful quake; 62 have died all over the country.
Across Kathmandu and beyond, exhausted families whose homes were either flattened or at risk of collapse laid mattresses out on streets and erected tents to shelter from rain.
People queued for water dispensed from the back of trucks, while the few stores still open had next to nothing on their shelves. Crowds jostled for medicine at one pharmacy.
With so many people sleeping in the open with no power or water and forecast of rain, fears mounted of major food and water shortages. Across Nepal, hundreds of villages have been left to fend for themselves.
India and other neighbouring countries sent in military transport planes laden with medical supplies, food and water. But little sign of organised relief efforts was visible as aid agencies struggled to fly helicopters in cloudy weather, aftershocks forced the intermittent closure of Kathmandu airport and roads were blocked by landslides.
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80 from Karnataka return from quake-hit Nepal
47 Telangana, Andhra tourists return from Nepal
At least 47 tourists and pilgrims from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, who were visiting Nepal when it was struck by an earthquake, have returned home, officials said on Sunday.
As many as 28 people from Hyderabad and 19 from Vijayawada were among the Indians evacuated since Saturday night, they said. The evacuated people have landed in Delhi and will be reaching Hyderabad on Sunday evening.
Andhra Pradesh’s Minister for NRI Affairs P. Raghunath Reddy will receive them at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here. These 47 were among 380 people from the two states stranded in Nepal.
The governments of the two states said they were making all efforts to bring all people home safely. The Andhra government said in a statement that the control room it set up at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi assisted 33 references Saturday night. The bhavan has made all arrangements to provide shelter, food and assistance to Telugu people rescued from Nepal.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu instructed union Minister Y.S. Chowdary and the state’s Special Representative in Delhi K. Ramamohan Rao to ensure that Telugu people are put on flights immediately for their respective destinations. The Andhra Pradesh Bhavan officials are coordinating with the Nepal embassy and the ministry of external affairs. For any assistance, people can call control rooms in New Delhi at 011-23782388 or in Hyderabad at 040-23456005.
336 from West Bengal stranded in Nepal
Meanwhile, a total of 336 people from West Bengal have been stranded due to the earthquake in Nepal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here on Sunday.
“As of now, 336 people from Bengal stranded. 31 rescued,” tweeted Banerjee late evening on Sunday.
She said nine of those rescued were flying back by IndiGo airlines and 15 others by an Air India flight later on Sunday.
The state government has set up a control room (Phone no. 1070) to acquire information about the people stranded in the neighbouring Himalayan nation in the aftermath of the high intensity earthquakes on Saturday and Sunday.
Pushpa Pradhan, who was admitted to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital here following an injury sustained when she slipped and fell while rushing out of her house during the quake, died on Sunday morning. She was resident of Mirik in Kurseong sub-division of Darjeeling.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday confirmed the death of three people due to the high intensity quake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale which had its epicentree near Pokhra in Nepal.
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Ashok Bhattacharya said on Sunday two old people died of heart attack during the quake. He demanded compensation for their families.
Meanwhile, an official said 2,300 buildings were partially damaged in Darjeeling district during Saturday’s quake. “These include government offices, residences, shopping malls, market complexes etc.,” district disaster management officer Aninday Sarkar told IANS.
The temblor left at least 172 people injured in various districts of north Bengal – 52 were being treated in four hospitals of Darjeeling district, while over 100 were injured in Malda, and 20 in Jalpaiguri.
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