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Casualties after massive Nepal quake

Author
Jacqui Stanford,
Publish Date
Sat, 25 Apr 2015, 6:42PM
(GETTY IMAGES)
(GETTY IMAGES)

Casualties after massive Nepal quake

Author
Jacqui Stanford,
Publish Date
Sat, 25 Apr 2015, 6:42PM

UPDATED 8.46PM: Witnesses are reporting seeing bodies, and many injured, after a massive quake in Nepal.

Two people are confirmed dead so far after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake.

There are reports as many as 50 people are trapped in a collapsed historic tower in Sundhara.

The quake was centred 81 kilometres northwest of Kathmandu, with a depth of 15 kilometres.

The tremors lasted between 30 seconds and two minutes and were felt across the across the border in India, including in the capital New Delhi.

The Kathmandu Valley is densely populated by nearly 2.5 million people, with the quality of buildings often poor.

CNN journalist Manesh Shrestha has been at two hospitals in Kathmandu and seen five dead people, and many injured.

"As I ran outside the earthquake swung me, it put me off balance and I hit against the wall, and I got a deep cut."

However the journalist was turned away as hospital staff dealt with far more serious injuries.

"This is the second hospital I've come to and it is quite chaotic scenes out here. There have been broken bones, broken legs. People have been injured in the head."

"I came to one hospital and there dead bodies that were brought, and there dozens of people being treated outside in the open."

"The casualty rate will become bigger, will go higher now, that's definite."

Local journalist Kanak Mani says the earthquake was the big one Nepal has been waiting for.

"It was never-ending. The ground shook and swayed and it was never-ending. And then after that, many, many aftershocks which continue til now."

Mani is concerned about Nepal's remote villages.

"Houses have cracked or fallen, not only in the valley and urban streets but a large part of central Nepal has been hit by this quake and the word we have from the villages is that whole neighbourhoods and buildings are down."

Photojournalist Nayantara, who is in Nepal's second-largest city Pokhara, says the earthquake was huge.

We're all gathered on a tennis court which is the only open space available to us close by

"There's quite a lot of critical damage. The building that I was in has massive cracks in it. There was a construction site right next to use, and several of the walls have fallen off."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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