A powerful magnitude 6.7 aftershock shook the Kathmandu region of
Nepal sending people yelling and running Sunday, a day after a massive
earthquake crippled the region killing more than 2,200.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the aftershock registered at a shallow depth of six miles.
"The aftershocks keep coming ... so people don't know what to
expect," said Sanjay Karki, Nepal country head for global aid agency
Mercy Corps. "All the open spaces in Kathmandu are packed with people
who are camping outdoors. When the aftershocks come you cannot imagine
the fear. You can hear women and children crying."
Saturday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake spread horror from Kathmandu to
small villages and to the slopes of Mount Everest, triggering an
avalanche that buried part of the base camp packed with foreign climbers
preparing to make their summit attempts. At least 17 people died there
and 61 were injured.
The earthquake centered outside Kathmandu, the capital, was the worst
to hit the South Asian nation in over 80 years. It destroyed swaths of
the oldest neighborhoods of Kathmandu, and was strong enough to be felt
all across parts of India, Bangladesh, China's region of Tibet and
Pakistan. By Sunday afternoon, authorities said at least 2,169 people
had died in Nepal alone, with 61 more deaths in India and a few in other
neighboring countries. At least 721 of them died in Kathmandu alone,
and the number of injured nationwide was upward of 5,000. With search
and rescue efforts far from over, it was unclear how much the death toll
would rise.
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