Earthquake devastates Nepal, killing over 2,200

Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, has been devastated by a powerful earthquake. It was the worst disaster in 81 years in Nepal since an earthquake claimed 10,700 lives in 1934.

The buildings in the northwest of the capital with the population of 3.5 million collapsed and roads were split wide on Sunday. People who were injured by flying debris screamed and cried on the street and some people who were bleeding were carried away.

Those who saved their lives in the nightmarish earthquake wandered around because they were scared about aftershocks. The earthquake measuring a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale for one or two minutes was followed by 65 tremors for eight hours including a 6.6-magnitude quake.

The 1,200-meter high capital where 12 percent of Nepal’s population of 30 million was particularly hit hard because of buildings made of mud. The New York Times said that the Dharahara Tower (Bhimsen Tower), a Kathmandu landmark built in 1832 and UNESCO-recognized historical monument, was reduced to rubble and trapped and killed 180 people. It said that four out of seven UNESCO Cultural Heritage monuments were seriously damaged. Mt. Everest also had avalanches, killing 18 people and injuring 61 people in the base camp, which is the worst accident in the mountain.

The Nepali government said on Sunday that the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck about 70 kilometers northwest of Kathmandu on Saturday afternoon killed more than 2,200 people and injured over 4,781. If neighboring regions bordering China, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are included, the death toll goes up to 2,300. “The earthquake translated the whole city southward by 10 feet,” Roger Bilham, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado, told the New York Times.