Country’s worst quake in 8 years kills over 157, death toll expected to rise KATHMANDU: Rescue workers in Nepal began digging through the rubble of collapsed houses with their bare hands on Saturday, searching for survivors after the country’s worst earthquake in eight years killed 157 people and shook buildings as far away as New Delhi. The quake struck the Jajarkot region in the west of the Himalayan nation at 11:47 p.m. on Friday with a 6.4 magnitude, Nepal’s National Seismological Centre said. The German Research Centre for Geosciences measured it at 5.7 and the US Geological Survey at 5.6. Officials fear the death toll could rise as first responders had reached the hilly area near the epicenter, some 500 km, west of the capital Kathmandu, only early on Saturday and began searching for survivors. “The number of injured could be in the hundreds and the deaths could go up as well,” Jajarkot district official Harish Chandra Sharma told Reuters by phone. FASTFACTS • At the regional hospital in the city of Nepalgunj, more than 100 beds were made available and teams of doctors stood by to help the injured. • Besides rescue helicopters, small government and army planes able to land in the short mountain strips were also used to ferry the wounded to Nepalgunj. Although the quake’s magnitude was not severe, the damage and the death toll are high due to the poor quality of construction in the area and because it struck while people slept, officials said. Rescue work was expected to be slow as emergency teams must first clear roads blocked by landslides in many places, they said, adding that helicopters and small planes have been asked to be ready to join the effort. At the regional hospital in the city of Nepalgunj, more than 100 beds were made available and teams of doctors stood by to help the injured. “I was fast asleep when all of a sudden it started shaking violently. I tried to run but the whole house collapsed. I tried escaping but half my body got buried in the debris,” said Bimal Kumar Karki, one of the first people to be brought to the regional hospital. “I screamed, but every one of my neighbors was in the same situation and screaming for help. It took nearly a half-hour to an hour before rescuers found me,” he said. Besides rescue helicopters, small government and army planes able to land in the short mountain strips were also used to ferry the wounded to Nepalgunj. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal flew in on a helicopter with a team of doctors. Dahal led an armed communist revolt in 1996-2006 that began in the districts that were hit by the quake. He brought seven injured people on his helicopter back to a hospital, according to his office. In Jajarkot district, 92 people were confirmed dead and 55 others injured, Kadayat, the police spokesperson said. The quake killed at least 36 people in neighboring Rukum district, where numerous houses collapsed, and at least 85 injured people were taken to the local hospital, he said. Security officials worked with villagers all through the night in the darkness to pull the dead and injured from fallen houses. Earthquakes are common in mountainous Nepal.