Nepal struck again; quake kills dozens

Los Angeles Times (TNS)

KATHMANDU, Nepal

Still reeling from last month’s devastating earthquake, Nepal was hammered again Tuesday by a magnitude 7.3 temblor that caused dozens more deaths, unleashed fresh landslides and brought down unsteady buildings.

By late afternoon, Nepal’s Home Affairs Ministry said at least 42 people were killed and more than 1,117 injured in the largest aftershock yet recorded from the 7.8 quake on April 25. Officials warned that the toll could rise.

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, a UH-1Y Huey, was carrying two Nepalese soldiers and six Marines, said Army Maj. Dave Eastburn, a Pacific Command spokesman. Nepalese troops were searching for the aircraft on foot but an aerial search was suspended because of darkness and was to resume at dawn today, he said.

The aircraft belonged to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469 based at Camp Pendleton.

The epicenter for Tuesday’s quake was nearly 50 miles northeast of the capital, Kathmandu, near the Chinese border, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The April quake, which killed more than 8,150 people, was centered in the mountains west of Kathmandu.

The temblor struck just before 1 p.m., sending residents of the capital scurrying into the open air for safety, and was followed by a series of smaller aftershocks that further rattled nerves.

Within hours, new makeshift tents had begun popping up in parts of Kathmandu as survivors of last month’s quake who had returned to their homes in recent days decided again that they were safer sleeping outdoors.

The Home Affairs Ministry said nine people were pulled out alive from damaged buildings in the remote Dolakha district, close to the quake’s epicenter near Mount Everest, and three from structures in Kathmandu.