Impoverished country appeals for aid, medical experts and helicopters as second quake kills dozens and injures thousands

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Thousands of fearful people spent the night outdoors after a new earthquake killed dozens of people and spread more misery in Nepal, which is still reeling from a devastating quake that killed more than 8,000 nearly three weeks ago.

A US Marine Corps helicopter carrying six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers was reported missing while delivering disaster aid in north-east Nepal, US officials said, although there have been no indications the aircraft crashed.

A home ministry official, Laxmi Dhakal, said on Wednesday that army helicopters were scouring the Sunkhani area, nearly 80km north-east of Kathmandu, for the missing helicopter.

Tuesday’s 7.3-magnitude quake struck hardest in the foothills of the Himalayas and triggered landslides that blocked roads to remote villages in several districts. Most of the 65 people confirmed dead by Wednesday morning were in Dolakha district, located north-east of Kathmandu, the district’s chief administrator, Prem Lal Lamichane, said.

“People are terrorised. Everyone is scared here. They spent the night out in the open,” Lamichane said, adding the administration was running out of relief material.

He asked the government to send more helicopters and supplies, and said there were many injured people stranded in villages.

Tuesday’s quake injured nearly 2,000 people, according to the home ministry’s latest count. But that toll was expected to rise as reports trickled in of people in isolated Himalayan towns and villages being buried under rubble, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alison Marston, an international development worker, reports from the streets of Kathmandu on Tuesday after the second earthquake.

Tremors radiated across parts of Asia. In neighboring India, at least 16 people were confirmed dead after rooftops or walls collapsed on to them, according to India’s home ministry. Chinese media reported one death in Tibet.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit on 25 April killed more than 8,150 people and flattened entire villages, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless in the country’s worst-recorded quake since 1934. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said Tuesday’s earthquake was the largest aftershock to date of that destructive quake.

Impoverished Nepal appealed to foreign nations for billions of dollars in aid, 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.

Search parties fanned out to look for survivors in the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Sindhupalchowk’s town of Chautara, which had become a hub for humanitarian aid after April’s quake.

In Washington, Navy Captain Chris Sims said the missing Huey helicopter was conducting disaster relief operations near Charikot, Nepal.

A nearby Indian helicopter heard radio chatter about a possible fuel problem, said US Army Colonel Steve Warren. The Huey, carrying tarps and rice, had dropped off supplies and was headed to a second site when contact was lost, he said, adding that there has been no smoke or other signs of a crash.

Due to the rugged terrain, the helicopter could have landed in an area where the crew was unable to get a beacon or radio signal out, Warren said.

Tuesday’s quake was followed closely by at least 17 strong aftershocks, according to the USGS.

Frightened residents in the capital, who had returned to their homes only a few days ago, had to again set up tents on Tuesday night to sleep in empty fields, parking lots and on sidewalks.

Forty-year-old produce vendor Ram Hari Sah said: “Everyone was saying the earthquakes are over ... Now I don’t want to believe anyone.”

Extra police were sent to patrol ad hoc camping areas, while drinking water and extra tents were being provided, according to Kathmandu administrator Ek Narayan Aryal.

Meanwhile, new landslides blocked mountain roads in the district of Gorkha, one of the regions hit hardest on 25 April, and previously damaged buildings collapsed with the latest quake.

Residents of the small town of Namche Bazaar, about 50km from the epicentre of Tuesday’s quake and well known to high-altitude trekkers, said a couple of buildings damaged earlier had collapsed there as well. However, there were no reports of deaths or injuries.

The earth also shook strongly in neighboring Tibet, unleashing a landslide that killed one person and injured three, according to China Central Television. Two houses collapsed, the state broadcaster said, quoting disaster officials of the regional Tibetan government.