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 The earthquake was centered 68 kilometers (42 miles) west of the
town of Namche Bazaar, close to Mount Everest and the border with
Tibet, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It could be felt as far away
as northern India and Bangladesh.
Buildings swayed in New Delhi, sending office workers scurrying on
to the streets. Residents in the Indian town of Siliguri, near the
border with Nepal, said chunks of concrete fell off one or two
buildings.
Nepal's home ministry said the death toll from the quake had reached
19, with 981 injured.
Five people were killed in Indian states bordering Nepal - one in
Uttar Pradesh and four in Bihar, officials said, and Chinese media
reported one person died in Tibet after rocks fell on a car.
Nepal is still picking up the pieces from the devastation caused by
last month's 7.8-magnitude earthquake, the country's worst in more
than 80 years, which killed at least 8,046 people and injured more
than 17,800.
Hundreds of thousands of buildings, including many ancient sites,
were destroyed and many more damaged.
Mountaineers seeking to scale the world's tallest peak have called
off this year's Everest season after 18 people died when last
month's quake triggered avalanches on the mountain.
Dambar Parajuli, president of Expedition Operators' Association of
Nepal, said there were no climbers or Nepali sherpa guides at the
Base Camp.
"All of them have already left," Parajuli said.
In Lukla, the departure point for treks to Everest, buildings
cracked and small landslides were triggered when the ground shook.
Locals said three teenage school students were injured.
Susana Perez from Madrid was on a 10-day trek with her husband to
Island Peak in the Everest region and was about to reach Lukla.
"We saw the mountain in front of us fall down - earth and rocks.
There were some houses underneath but it was not clear if they were
hit," Perez said.
In Kathmandu, people panicked and rushed outdoors when the tremors
began around 12.30, Reuters witnesses said. The quake was followed
by at least half a dozen aftershocks, including one as big as 6.3.
Parents could be seen clutching children tightly, and hundreds of
people were frantically trying to call relatives on their mobile
phones.
Shopkeepers closed their shops and the streets were jammed with
people rushing to check on their families.
"I'm heading straight home," said Bishal Rai, a man in his 20s, who
said he was trying to contact his family in the north of the
capital.
ASSESSING DAMAGE
Medics and volunteers formed a human chain at a Kathmandu hospital
to keep a path open for ambulances.
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A volunteer at the hospital said five or six injured people had been
brought in, two on stretchers. So far, few ambulances had arrived,
he said.
Some aid and rescue teams, which were on their way back from Nepal,
were considering whether to return to help.
"There is a huge concern for the people who may be living in
structures that did not prove earthquake sound," said De Wojtek
Wilk, CEO of the Polish Center for International Aid.
Wilk said his last team of medics were currently on their way back
from Nepal, but he was wondering whether to send them back on a
return flight.
Indian Air Force spokesman Simranpal Singh Birdi said one MiG 17
aircraft stationed in Kathmandu has been sent to Namche Bazaar to
assess the damage.
LEFT SHAKEN
At least four people were killed in Chautara town in Sindhupalchowk
district, north of the Nepali capital Kathmandu, a spokesman for the
International Organization for Migration said.
The new temblor also triggered at least three big landslides in the
district, which suffered the heaviest death toll in last month's
quake.
A district official there said 12 people had been injured.
"The latest earthquake has left us shaken. I am still trembling,"
said the official, Diwakar Koirala, when reached soon after the
quake.
Rhita Doma Sherpa, a nurse with the Mountain Medicine Center in
Namche Bazaar, near the epicenter, said the quake caused cracks in
several buildings, including a school, but she had not seen major
damage.
"It was lunchtime. All the kids were outside. Thank god," she said.
(Additional reporting by Krista Mahr, Rupam Jain Nair, Doug Busvine,
Sanjeev Miglani, Andrew MacAskill and Frank Jack Daniel; Writing by
Paritosh Bansal; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Will Waterman)
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