NEPAL’S Home Ministry said that the death toll due to the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday (April 25) had killed more than 1,800 people, a toll predicted to rise as rescuers used their hands to dig for survivors among the rubble.
Nepal’s Home Ministry confirmed the death toll had reached 1,805 and that more than 4,700 people had been injured.
Amateur video posted on a social media website showed large cracks down the middle of a road
Foreign climbers and their Nepalese guides around Mount Everest were caught by the tremors and a huge avalanche. Some took to social media to send desperate messages for assistance, warning that more lives were in danger.
Hospitals across the impoverished nation of 28 million people struggled to cope with the dead and injured from Nepal’s worst quake in 81 years, and a lack of equipment meant rescuers could look no deeper than surface rubble for signs of life.
Kathmandu’s Bir Hospital had so far received 300 to 350 patients with serious injuries, and most of them died, said paramedic Dinesh Chaudhary. He said the hospital was running out of supplies and were procuring medicines from shops outside.
The earthquake, centred 50 miles (80 km) east of the second city, Pokhara, was all the more destructive for being shallow.
Areas of Kathmandu were reduced to rubble, and rescue operations had still not begun in some remote areas.
Among the capital’s landmarks destroyed in the earthquake was the 60-metre-high (100 feet)Dharahara Tower, built in 1832 for the queen of Nepal, with a viewing balcony that had been open to visitors for the last 10 years. (Reuters)
