At least 66 people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck north-eastern Nepal, just over two weeks after a devastating quake killed more than 8,000 people and destroyed parts of the country.

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In Nepal the death toll reached 48, with 1,176 injured, police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam said.

Seventeen people were killed in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the home ministry said, and Chinese media reported the death of one person in Tibet after rocks fell on a car.

The earthquake struck at a depth of 19 kilometres, 83 kilometres east of the capital Kathmandu — near the base camp for Everest — about 12:30pm local time, the United States Geological Survey said.

Buildings that were weakened by a magnitude-7.8 quake less than three weeks ago collapsed, according to reports.

Most of the reported fatalities were in villages to the east of Kathmandu.

Five died in Sindhupalchowk, district administrator Krishna Gwayali said. He said the deaths were on a highway towards Tibet.

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In the same area there were reports of three major landslides.

Six more were killed in Dolakha district close to the epicentre, an eyewitness said, adding that rescuers were trying to reach three people trapped in a house.

In the capital three people died, a police official told news agency Reuters. One man was killed by falling rocks in Chinese Tibet.

Aid workers reported serious damage to some villages seen from the air and witnesses reported seeing rocks and mud crashing down remote hillsides lined with roads and small hamlets.

The quake was followed by at least half a dozen aftershocks, including one as big as magnitude 6.3.

A spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration said the quake destroyed several buildings in the central Chautara district.

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The earthquake caused people to run out of buildings in Kathmandu. There were no immediate reports of damage to buildings in the capital, but shopkeepers closed their shops, Reuters reported.

"This is a really big one," Prakash Shilpakar, the owner of a handicrafts shop in Kathmandu, said.

According to accounts on Twitter, the quake caused widespread panic and major traffic jams in the capital.

Parents could be seen clutching children tightly and hundreds of people were frantically trying to call relatives on their mobile phones.

Oxfam Australia's Cecilia Keizer is in Kathmandu and said she felt the building she was in shake.

"I was on the top floor, so I stayed put. But a lot of our staff, they are really trembling and shaking and crying," she told the ABC.

"It is really a very bad feeling, because people are already traumatised. We are fearing really severe damages again to buildings and probably also with some casualties."

Levi Duminy, who travelled to Nepal to help after last month's disaster, said he watched several buildings come down in the capital.

"I wouldn't say it was as bad as the first one, but definitely the people are scared," he told the ABC.

"I personally saw ten or 15 people come past me with head injuries, massive cuts from windows breaking and falling on top of them."

Expedition Operators' Association of Nepal president Dambar Parajuli said there were no climbers or Nepali Sherpa guides at the Everest base camp.

"All of them have already left," Mr Parajuli said.

Quake felt in neighbouring India, at least 17 killed

Shockwaves were also felt across northern India where at least 17 people were killed when buildings collapsed.

Indian hospital staff attend to a schoolgirl who fainted as a tremor struck in the city of Siliguri. ( AFP: Diptendu Dutta )

In India's capital New Delhi, buildings swayed for more than a minute and people scurried into the streets.

Residents in the Indian town of Siliguri, near the border with Nepal, said chunks of concrete fell off one or two buildings.

Indian Air Force spokesman Simranpal Singh Birdi said one MiG 17 aircraft stationed in Kathmandu had been sent to the quake's epicentre in Nepal to assess the damage.

The quake came after one which struck on April 25, killing at least 8,046 people and injuring more than 17,800.

About 600,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in that quake and more than 60 Australians were evacuated from Kathmandu by the Royal Australian Air Force.

Everest base camp was also evacuated after an avalanche was triggered, killing 18 climbers.

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Mountaineers seeking to scale the world's tallest peak have called off this year's Everest season.

Nepal's finance minister Ram Sharan Mahat estimated the reconstruction will take $2 billion and has appealed for help from international donors.

Lucy Beck from Care International said the latest quake had scared many still recovering from the April 25 disaster.

"This will have come as a massive shock [to people] who may have started planning to rebuild, trying to salvage things from the last time round," she told the ABC.

The latest large earthquake to shake Nepal was centred in the north-east of the country, and struck less than a month after a massive quake killed more than 8,000 people.

Reuters

