KATHMANDU, NEPAL—A new earthquake killed dozens of people Tuesday and spread more fear and misery in Nepal, which is still struggling to recover from a devastating quake nearly three weeks ago that left more than 8,000 dead.

The magnitude-7.3 quake, centred midway between Kathmandu and Mount Everest, struck hardest in the foothills of the Himalayas, triggering some landslides, but it also shook the capital badly, sending thousands of terrified people into the streets.

Nepal’s Parliament was in session when the quake hit, and frightened lawmakers ran for the exits as the building shook and the lights flickered out.

“People are scared. They are in a state of dilemma; they don’t know what to do, what’s next,” said Max Dipesh Khatri, a Kathmandu native who has co-ordinated grassroots relief efforts since the first earthquake hit on April 25.

The toll so far

Nepal’s Home Ministry has raised the death toll from the latest quake to at least 42, while saying another 1,117 people had been injured.

The magnitude-7.3 quake hit hardest in remote mountain districts northeast of the capital of Nepal, terrifying a nation already shell-shocked by the even more powerful quake on April 25 that killed more than 8,000 and flattened entire villages.

All 135 Canadian Armed Forces members — including members of the Disaster Assistance Response Team — who were deployed to Nepal to help recovery from the earlier earthquake are safe.

Tremors radiated across parts of Asia. In neighbouring India, at least 16 people were confirmed dead after rooftops or walls collapsed onto them, according to India's Home Ministry. Chinese media reported one death in Tibet.

Separately, the U.S. military reported that a Marine helicopter from a unit based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., had gone missing Tuesday while on a humanitarian mission in the Charikot area of Nepal. The helicopter was carrying two Nepalese soldiers and six Marines. Nepalese troops were searching for the aircraft on foot but an aerial search was suspended as night fell and will resume at dawn Wednesday.

The view from the ground:

Ola Dunin-Bell is a Canadian doctor working with a Canadian Red Cross delegation in the remote village of Dhunche, in the Rasuwa district north of Kathmandu.

“Initially we felt the motion of the ground, and you could actually physically see it moving,” Dunin-Bell told the Star. The second quake lasted about 20 seconds.

Khatri, the Kathmandu resident, told the Star that people in the capital were scared to go back to their homes. “(The streets are) empty, everything is closed. There are only a few people walking by. I think the people are in (a) panic,” he said.

Khatri said he could not meet everyone’s demands for aid and had to turn some away. Most people are seeking tarps to protect themselves from the rain.

“I feel really disgusted because I have to say no to the people because the turn-out all of a sudden becomes overwhelming and it becomes unmanageable,” Khatri said.

“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.”

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

Information was slow to reach the capital after Tuesday’s quake, but officials and aid workers said they expected the death toll to almost certainly rise.

Rescue efforts and the challenges:

Rescue helicopters were immediately sent to districts northeast of Kathmandu.

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The government was having trouble contacting people in the area, Home Ministry spokesman Laxmi Dhakal said, but initial reports suggested there was damage in Sindhupalchowk and Dolkha districts.

Dunin-Bell told the Star the Red Cross’s field clinic — composed of doctors and other specialists from Canada, Hong Kong and the Philippines — was undamaged by the second quake, but that access to the site is expected to get more difficult with roads in poor condition, and heavy rains increasing the possibility of landslides.

Where the earthquakes struck

“The needs of the community have increased. There will be further evacuees. Part of their challenges (is) the road system is not the best here, and that makes it difficult for them to access us,” Dunin-Bell said.

The IOM reported that the first quake injured about 16,000 people, 60 per cent of whom were treated for fractures.

“The problem is that when you discharge these patients, they have nowhere to go back (to),” Maurizio Busatti, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Nepal, told the Star by phone from Kathmandu on Tuesday.

The difference this time:

Tuesday’s quake was deeper coming from a depth of 18.5 kilometres versus the earlier one at 15 kilometres. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday's earthquake was the largest aftershock to date of that destructive quake. It was followed closely by at least six strong aftershocks.

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,” UNICEF’s Foley said.

Nepalese have been terrified by dozens of aftershocks that followed the April 25 quake. .

After Tuesday’s quake, Paul Dillon, an IOM spokesman, 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.

“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.

“The biggest challenge is basically putting a roof on each family’s head,” said IOM’s Busatti. “We have the rain, the monsoon (season), approaching fast. The first thunderstorms are already encroaching. It’s a race against the clock.”

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With files from Los Angeles Times

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