Rains, fresh tremors bodge rescue efforts
Kathmandu: Rains and fresh tremors on Sunday night 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 2,400 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.
“Still raining, adds to the misery. Only consolation is that it may ease the water crisis in some of the shelters,” Nepali Times Editor Kunda Dixit tweeted.
He said Nepal urgently need tents and medicines. Earlier, fresh powerful aftershocks on Sunday triggered panic among the stricken people and caused avalanches on Mt. Everest which had on Saturday taken a toll of 22 lives.
A strong 6.7-magnitude aftershock followed by another measuring 6.5 on the Richter Scale, sent people scrambling for open spaces.
The 7.9-magnitude temblor on Saturday left a trail of devastation and suffering, with people spending the cold night in the open because of fears of fresh quake.
According to the latest figures available with the Kathmandu-based National Emergency Operation Centre, the death toll in Nepal stood at 2,430 with over 6,000 people injured. 1,053 people are reported killed in the Kathmandu Valley alone.
Officials fear the death toll could rise as desperate search for survivors continued. Mass cremations were held here as the death toll continued to climb throughout the day.
International rescue teams, including from India, arrived here as Nepal declared a state of emergency in the wake of the disaster, the worst in over 80 years of the country’s recorded history. (PTI)
