Another major quake hits Nepal

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) – A major earthquake hit a remote mountainous region of Nepal on Tuesday, killing at least four people, triggering landslides and toppling buildings less than three weeks after the country was ravaged by its worst quake in decades.

Information was slow to reach the capital of Kathmandu, but officials and aid workers said they expected the death toll would almost certainly rise.

Rescue helicopters were sent to districts northeast of the capital of Kathmandu, where landslides and buildings collapsed by the magnitude-7.3 quake may have left people buried, the government said. Home Ministry spokesman Laxmi Dhakal named the Sindhupalchowk and Dolkha districts as the hardest hit.

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At least four people were killed in Sindhulpalchowk’s town of Chautara, according to Paul Dillon, a spokesman with the International Organization for Migration. More than 100 people were injured in surrounding villages, chief district officer Krishna Gyawali said.

Rescuers fanned out to search for survivors in the wreckage of Chautara, which has become a hub for humanitarian aid after the 7.8-magnitude quake on April 25 that killed more than 8,150 people and injured more than 17,860 as it flattened mountain villages and destroyed buildings. It was Nepal’s worst recorded earthquake since 1934.

Tuesday’s quake was deeper, however, coming from a depth of 18.5 kilometers (11.5 miles) versus the earlier one at 15 kilometers (9.3 miles). Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

The Tuesday quake was followed closely by at least six strong aftershocks, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The international airport in Kathmandu, which has become a transport hub for international aid, was closed temporarily on Tuesday, while traffic snarled in the streets of Kathmandu.

Early reports indicated at least two buildings had collapsed in the capital, though at least one had been unoccupied due to damage it sustained during the April 25 quake. Experts say the April 25 quake caused extensive structural damage even in buildings that did not topple, and that many could be in danger of future collapse.

“The shaking seemed to go on and on,” said Rose Foley, a UNICEF official based in Kathmandu. “It felt like being on a boat in rough seas.”

Aid agencies were struggling to get reports from outside of the capital.

“We’re thinking about children across the country, and who are already suffering. This could make them even more vulnerable,” Foley said.

Residents of the small town of Namche Bazaar, about 50 kilometers (35 miles) from the epicenter and a well-known spot for high-altitude trekkers, said a couple buildings damaged in the earlier earthquake collapsed after Tuesday’s quake. However, there were no reports there of deaths or injuries in the town.

Meanwhile, new landslides blocked mountain roads in the district of Gorkha, one of the most damaged regions after the April 25 quake.

“People are terribly scared. Everyone ran out in the streets because they are afraid of being inside the houses,” Norwegian Red Cross Secretary-General Asne Havnelid told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

At Kathmandu’s Norvic Hospital, patients and doctors rushed to the parking lot.

“I thought I was going to die this time,” said Sulav Singh, who rushed with his daughter into the street in the suburban neighborhood of Thapathali. “Things were just getting back to normal, and we get this one.”

Nepalese have been terrified by dozens of aftershocks that followed the April 25 quake. The impoverished country has appealed for billions of dollars in aid from foreign nations, as well as medical experts to treat the wounded and helicopters to ferry food and temporary shelters to hundreds of thousands left homeless amid unseasonal rains.

After Tuesday’s quake, Dillon said he saw a man in Kathmandu who had clearly run from the shower with shampoo covering his head. “He was sitting on the ground, crying,” he said.

Across the Nepalese border in Tibet’s Jilong and Zhangmu regions, the earth shook strongly. Tremors were also felt slightly in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

“Rocks fell from the mountains,” Jilong county government vice chief Wang Wenxiang was quoted as saying by China News Service. “There might be some houses collapsed or damaged. We are now checking on the condition of the people.”

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Daigle reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writers Tim Sullivan in New Delhi, Ian Mader in Beijing and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.