7.3-magnitude earthquake hits Nepal and India, kills dozen

Janjivan Bureau
New Delhi: A massive earthquake of magntitude 7.3, followed shortly by another powerful one, hit Nepal, India, Pakistan and Afganistan and kill more than dozen people.
At least four people were killed in a central Nepal town on Tuesday after a 7.3 earthquake shook the Himalayan nation, just weeks after a devastating temblor killed more than 8,000 people and damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings.
The four people died in Chautara in Sindhupalchowk district, north of Kathmandu, after several buildings collapsed, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration said.
Separately, a district official there said 12 people had been injured in Sindhupalchowk, which suffered the heaviest death toll in last month’s quake. The new temblor also triggered at least three big landslides in the district.
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake, with its epicentre in Afghanistan, also hit around the same time as the first quake. Reports said that at least six people were killed and 100 injured. Some of the buildings which survived the monster 7.8 quake of April 25 were flattened.
The tremors were also felt in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and West Bengal and even shook buildings for nearly a minute in places as far south as Chennai. People rushed outside of offices and houses in panic when the tremors hit around 12:35pm.
There were reports of damages to buildings in West Bengal and Sikkim. Further details are awaited.
In Delhi, Metro services were immediately put on restricted mode with speeds being slowed down. Home minister Rajnath Singh said the National Disaster Response Force( NDRF) has been put on alert to deal with any emergency .