{"id":111500,"date":"2015-04-26T01:17:35","date_gmt":"2015-04-26T01:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=111500"},"modified":"2015-04-26T01:18:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-26T01:18:28","slug":"nepal-quake-kills-more-than-1500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=111500","title":{"rendered":"Nepal quake kills more than 1,500"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 1,500 people were killed by a powerful earthquake that struck Nepal\u00a0on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The earthquake \u2013 which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale \u2013 wrecked houses, levelled centuries-old temples and triggered avalanches on Mount Everest.<\/p>\n<p>At least 18 people were killed on the mountain, and hundreds of tourists and guides are now trapped or buried in snow and ice there as rescue parties struggle to reach them.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.theguardian.com\/embed\/video\/world\/video\/2015\/apr\/25\/kathmandu-earthquake-leaves-buildings-ruins-death-toll-rises-video\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>One climber, Alex Gavan, tweeted that he had to run for his life after an avalanche struck Everest\u2019s base camp and reported that many had died and many more were badly injured.<\/p>\n<p>He appealed for urgent help to save those hurt. Mohan Krishna Sapkota, a government official, also appealed for help for Nepal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are facing a tremendous crisis here and it is hard to even assess what the death toll and the extent of damage could be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\" data-component=\"rich-link\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-2 | 1\">\n<div class=\"rich-link tone-news--item \">\n<div class=\"rich-link__container\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__image-container u-responsive-ratio\">\n<figure style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/static\/w-460\/h--\/q-95\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2015\/4\/25\/1429973340945\/15c20209-b6d9-42f8-b899-57ae9d3b70c5-460x276.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deadly Everest avalanche triggered by Nepal earthquake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-link__header\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__arrow\">The tremor was the worst to hit the landlocked nation, sandwiched between India and China, in more than 80 years. At least 1,130 people were confirmed dead in Nepal, with others killed in north India, China and Bangladesh.<\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-link__arrow\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-link__arrow\">Given the scale of the destruction, the death toll is almost certain to rise, said Laxmi Dhakal, a home ministry official.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Relief efforts were being hampered by a collapse in communications, raising fears that a widespread humanitarian disaster was unravelling across the impoverished Himalayan nation of 28 million.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a very large earthquake in a significantly populated region with infrastructure that has been damaged in past earthquakes,\u201d said US Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle.<\/p>\n<p>The Nepalese government made an urgent appeal for foreign help, with India sending in military aircraft with medical equipment and relief teams.<\/p>\n<p>The UK deployed an eight-strong team of humanitarian experts, including disaster response and search-and-rescue specialists. David Cameron had earlier tweeted that the UK would do everything it could to help.<\/p>\n<p>The earthquake occurred a few minutes before noon and rumbled across the densely populated Kathmandu Valley, rippled through the capital and spread north towards the Himalayas and Tibet, and west towards the historic city of Lahore in Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>A magnitude 6.6 aftershock struck an hour later and smaller aftershocks continued to jolt the region for hours.<\/p>\n<p>Residents ran out of buildings in panic when the earthquake struck. Walls tumbled, large cracks opened on streets and walls, towers collapsed and clouds of dust began to swirl all around.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur village has been almost wiped out,\u201d said Vim Tamang, a resident of Manglung, near the epicentre. \u201cMost of our houses are either buried by landslide or damaged by shaking.\u201d He said that half of the village\u2019s population was missing or dead. \u201cAll the villagers have gathered in the open area. We don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indian tourist Devyani Pant was in a Kathmandu coffee shop when \u201csuddenly the tables started trembling and paintings on the wall fell to the ground. I screamed and rushed outside,\u201d she told Reuters. Later she reported that she could see three bodies of monks who had been trapped in the debris of a collapsed building. \u201cWe are trying to pull the bodies out and look for anyone who is trapped,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>At Bir Emergency Hospital, doctors were fighting to treat the wounded and save the lives of dozens of badly injured victims of the tremor. Gajendra Mani Shah, a doctor, said he was dealing mainly with head traumas and limb injuries from falling rubble. He said the hospital had treated about 400 patients so far and that at least 50 had died. People were lying in rows on mattresses, surrounded by bloodsoaked tissues, and lined the corridors, hooked up to intravenous drips.<\/p>\n<p>Another doctor, Erabesh Gyawali, said he rushed to the hospital after the first tremor hit. He and his wife were riding their scooter when the earthquake struck and were thrown off, narrowly missing being hit by falling rubble.<\/p>\n<p>Pushpa Das, a Kathmandu labourer, was injured when a wall collapsed on him as he ran from his house. \u201cIt was very scary. The earth was moving,\u201d he told reporters as he waited for treatment outside one hospital. As he spoke, dozens more showed up with injuries, mostly from falling bricks. Kathmandu\u2019s international airport was shut down.<\/p>\n<p>A Swedish woman, Jenny Adhikari, who lives in Nepal, told the Swedish newspaper <em>Aftonbladet<\/em> that she was riding a bus in the town of Melamchi, north-east of Kathmandu, when the earth began to move. \u201cA huge stone crashed only about 20m from the bus,\u201d she was quoted as saying. \u201cAll the houses around me have tumbled down. I think there are a lot of people who have died.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subarna Khadka was bathing when the first tremor happened, but couldn\u2019t escape because the earthquake jammed his bathroom door. \u201cI almost lost my hope of life. I was trapped. But my wife rescued me once the shaking got quiet. I could only pray to God for life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the main hospital in Kathmandu, volunteers formed human chains to clear the way for ambulances to bring in the injured, while across the city, rescuers scrabbled through the rubble of destroyed buildings, among them ancient, wooden Hindu temples, in search of victims.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands in Kathmandu were bedding down in the open air after Nepal\u2019s national radio warned people to stay outdoors because of the danger that more aftershocks might occur. \u201cEveryone is scared of a repeat,\u201d said 29-year-old Rabin Shakya. \u201cI rushed outside when I felt the earthquake. I was terrified. I\u2019ve stayed outside all day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On one patch of ground in Kathmandu, three children huddled under a blanket. Ragan Karki, 16, said he and his siblings had come there to seek shelter for the night and were waiting for their parents to join them. They had been in their third-floor flat when the earthquake struck. Ragan\u2019s 12-year-old brother, Ryan, added: \u201cI was scared, but I didn\u2019t cry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the community of Nyakha Chowk, 1,500 residents assembled around a Buddhist temple for the night where dinner was being cooked in two giant pots. \u201cEveryone has made a donation,\u201d said Vidho Ratna.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\" data-component=\"rich-link\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-2 | 2\">\n<div class=\"rich-link tone-media--item rich-link--gallery\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__container\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__image-container u-responsive-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/static\/w-460\/h--\/q-95\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2015\/4\/25\/1429952413134\/4bdc7cb6-04a6-4e8c-9231-103b6a889063-460x276.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-link__header\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>While the scale of the disaster has yet to be ascertained, the earthquake is likely to put a huge strain on the resources of this poor country, best known for the highest mountain in the world and its rich Hindu culture. The economy of Nepal is heavily dependent on tourism, principally trekking and Himalayan mountain climbing.<\/p>\n<p>Among the buildings destroyed by the earthquake was the Unesco-listed Dharahara Tower. The 60m tower was built in 1832 for the Queen of Nepal. Yesterday, all that remained of the lighthouse-like building was a jagged stump just 10m high. Sujata Thapa, 22, said he was passing Dharahara when the earthquake struck. \u201cI stood still. In a few seconds, I saw Dharahara falling down. People were screaming.\u201d The tower was a popular tourist destination and every weekend hundreds of people paid to go up to the viewing platform on its eighth storey. It is not yet clear how many tourists were on the tower when it collapsed, though reports indicate that several bodies were later extracted from the ruins.<\/p>\n<p>The earthquake was also felt in India\u2019s capital of New Delhi and several other Indian cities. India\u2019s prime minister, Narendra Modi, called a meeting of top government officials to review the damage and how to respond in parts of India that felt strong tremors. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Sikkim, which share a border with Nepal, have reported building damage. Pakistan\u2019s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, offered \u201call possible help\u201d that Nepal may need.<\/p>\n<p>Christian Aid announced it had made an initial \u00a350,000 available to help victims of the earthquake and added that it would launch an appeal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe earthquake is the nightmare scenario which we have long discussed and wondered if we could make major improvements before a catastrophe occurred,\u201d said Dr Ilan Kelman, of the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, at University College London.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 1,500 people were killed by a powerful earthquake that struck Nepal\u00a0on Saturday. The earthquake \u2013 which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale \u2013 wrecked houses, levelled centuries-old temples and triggered avalanches on Mount Everest. At least 18 people were killed on the mountain, and hundreds of tourists and guides are now trapped or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":111501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[43,38,14],"class_list":["post-111500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-foresight-medical-center","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}