Death toll tops 2,500; shocks of quake terrify survivors

Associated Press

KATHMANDU, NEPAL

Shell-shocked and sleeping in the streets, tens of thousands of Nepalis braced against terrifying aftershocks Sunday while digging for survivors of the massive earthquake that ripped across this Himalayan nation a day earlier, killing more than 2,500 people.

Acrid, white smoke rose above Nepal’s most revered Hindu temple, where dozens of bodies were being cremated at any given time.

Aid groups received the first word from remote mountain villages — reports that suggested many communities perched on mountainsides were devastated or struggling to cope.

Landslides hindered rescue teams that tried to use mountain trails to reach those in need, said Prakash Subedi, chief district official in the Gorkha region, where the quake was centered.

Saturday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake spread horror from Kathmandu to small villages and to the slopes of Mount Everest, triggering an avalanche that buried part of the base camp packed with foreign climbers preparing to make their summit attempts. At least 18 people died there and 61 were injured.

With people fearing more quakes, tens of thousands spent the day crowding in the streets and the night sleeping in parks or on a golf course. Others camped in open squares lined by cracked buildings and piles of rubble. Helicopter blades thudded periodically overhead.

Crows screeched as the ground shook with the worst of the aftershocks — magnitude 6.7. Panicked residents raced outdoors.

By late Sunday, the aftershocks appeared to be weakening. A magnitude 5.3 quake shook an area east of Kathmandu.

Nepal authorities said Sunday that at least 2,430 people died in that country alone, not including the 18 dead in the avalanche. Another 61 people died from the quake in India and a few in other neighboring countries.