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Fresh tremors jolt Nepal, earthquake measures 4.5
Highlights
Fresh tremors on Saturday jolted parts of Nepal, even as death toll in the country after a powerful quake struck on April 25 crosses 6,600.
Fresh tremors on Saturday jolted parts of Nepal, even as death toll in the country after a powerful quake struck on April 25 crosses 6,600.
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According to India Meteorological Department, the intensity of the tremors were 4.5 on Richter scale. However, USGS claims it to be of 5.0 magnitude.
The tremors were felt 25 kms East of Khudi and 64 kms east of Pokhara in Nepal. Furthermore, the depth of the tremors has been recorded 10 kms by IMD.
As per Nepal`s National Seismological Centre, the epicentres of the tremors were Sindhupalchok and Dolakha districts.
An earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale, with its epicenter in Sindhupalchowk district, occurred at 3.55 am, while the second one measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale jolted Dolakha district at 5.55 am, The Himalayan Times quoted the centre as saying.
With this, the total number of earthquakes measuring more than four magnitude on the Richter scale after the April 25 earthquake reached 121 and their frequency has come down, centre chief Lok Bijay Adhikari said.
According to Adhikari, people should not panic as the chances of damage from the quakes that measure less than six in magnitude are slim.
Meanwhile, Nepal ruled out the possibility of finding more survivors buried in the rubble from a massive earthquake
One week on from Nepal`s deadliest quake in over 80 years, hopes of detecting more signs of life among the ruins of the capital Kathmandu had all but disappeared and the focus was shifting to reaching survivors in far-flung areas who have yet to receive relief supplies.
The UN children`s fund UNICEF warned of a race against time to avert an outbreak of disease among the 1.7 million youngsters estimated to be living in the worst-hit areas, with monsoon rains just a few weeks away.
The 7.8-magnitude quake wreaked a trail of death and destruction when it erupted around midday last Saturday, reducing much of Kathmandu to rubble and even triggering a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest.
"It has already been one week since the disaster," home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal told AFP.
"We are trying our best in rescue and relief work but now I don`t think that there is any possibility of survivors under the rubble."
As well as updating the death toll to 6,621, Dhakal put the number of injured at 14,023.
While multiple teams of rescuers from more than 20 countries have been using sniffer dogs and heat-seeking equipment to find survivors in the rubble, no one has been pulled alive since Thursday evening.
More than 100 people were also killed in neighbouring India and China.
The exact scale of the disaster was still to emerge, with the mountainous terrain in the vast Himalayan nation complicating the relief effort.
The numbers of foreigners who have died was also unclear with around 1,000 EU citizens still unaccounted for in Nepal, according to diplomats.
Rameshwor Dangal, joint secretary of Nepal`s National Disaster Management Division, said many people were waiting to either receive emergency aid supplies or else be airlifted to safety.
"In many areas people are not getting relief and it is natural that they are unhappy about it," he told AFP.
"We estimate that there may still be around 1,000 people in Sindhupalchowk and Rasuwa areas who need to be rescued. This includes the injured and the stranded people, including the foreigners."
AFP journalists who reached part of Sindhupalchowk on Friday reported scenes of utter devastation. In nearby rice-farming communities, almost all the houses had been so severely damaged that they were no longer habitable, and locals were sleeping in makeshift tents.
Tens of thousands of survivors in Kathmandu have also been living out in the open in the week since the quake, having either lost their homes or fearful that aftershocks could bring teetering buildings to the ground."We are not living in this tent out of choice. We are here because we have nowhere to go," said Dhiraj Thakur who has been camped out for the last week in Tundi Khel Maidan, an open area in the centre of the city.
"I have seven family members with me which includes my wife, my sister, nephew and my parents. The rented room where we were living in Kathmandu is now in ruins.
"Most of our stuff is lost and even the person for whom I used to work as a driver is dead, so I don`t know where I will get the money for renting another room," said the 24-year-old.
Shambhu Thapa, who worked as a cook in a hotel before it was wrecked in the quake, had decided to move back to his home village with his wife and three children now that he had no means of supporting them in Kathmandu.
"Even our village home is damaged, but at least it is our own land," he said after another night out in the open.
"Here, we have been surviving on a daily supply of biscuits, a little rice and water. We will wait for a free transport out of the city as we don`t have enough money to reach my village."
UNICEF said the health and wellbeing of children affected by the disaster were "hanging in the balance" as so many had been left homeless, in deep shock and with no access to basic care.
"Hospitals are overflowing, water is scarce, bodies are still buried under the rubble and people are still sleeping in the open. This is a perfect breeding ground for diseases," said Rownak Khan, UNICEF`s deputy representative in Nepal.
"We have a small window of time to put in place measures that will keep earthquake-affected children safe from infectious disease outbreaks, a danger that would be exacerbated by the wet and muddy conditions brought on with the rains," added Khan.
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