Strong earthquake kills more than 120 people in Nepal, dozens injured

• Officials fear the death toll from Friday’s earthquake could rise.
• The Prime Minister of Nepal arrives in the affected area to oversee the operations.
• Expresses deep sorrow for loss of life and property.

At least 128 people were killed and dozens injured in Nepal when a powerful earthquake struck the western Jajarkot region, officials said Saturday, as houses in the region collapsed and buildings as far away as New Delhi in neighboring India were shaken.

The earthquake struck at 23:47 (1802 GMT) on Friday with a magnitude of 6.4, the National Seismological Center of Nepal said. The German Geosciences Research Center measured the quake at 5.7, downgraded from 6.2, while the US Geological Survey put it at 5.6. Reuters mentionted.

The earthquake is the deadliest since 2015, when about 9,000 people were killed in two earthquakes in the Himalayan country.

Officials feared the death toll from Friday’s quake could rise as they failed to make contact in the hilly area near the epicenter, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu, where tremors were also felt. The region has a population of 190,000 with villages scattered in remote hills.

“The number of injured could be in hundreds and the death toll could also rise,” Jajarkot district official Harish Chandra Sharma said. Reuters by phone.

Police spokesman Kuber Kadayat said 92 people were killed in Jajarkot and 36 in neighboring Rukum West district, both in Karnali province. The epicenter was in the village of Ramidanda.

At least 85 people were injured in Rukum West and 55 in Jajarkot, an official in the chief minister’s office said, while Sharma said at least 50 people were being treated in hospitals in Jajarkot alone.

“Many houses have collapsed, many more have developed cracks. Thousands of residents spent the night in cold, open ground because they were too afraid to go into the cracked houses as aftershocks hit,” Sharma said. “I couldn’t get in myself.”

Search and rescue have to clear roads blocked by landslides caused by the earthquake to reach the affected areas, police officer Namaraj Bhattarai said.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal flew to the area early Saturday with a 16-member army medical team to oversee search, rescue and relief efforts, his office said.

Dahal, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, expressed deep sorrow over the loss of life and property in the earthquake and ordered security agencies to start immediate rescue and relief operations.

Local media footage showed shattered facades of high-rise brick buildings, with large pieces of furniture scattered about. Videos on X showed people running in the street as some buildings were evacuated.

“Houses have collapsed. People ran out of their homes. I’m out in the crowd of terrified residents. We’re trying to find details of the damage,” police official Santos Roca said by phone.