An avalanche swept the face of Mt Everest after the massive earthquake struck Nepal on Saturday injuring dozens of people and killing at least 718.
The avalanche apparently struck between the Khumbu Icefall, a rugged area of collapsed ice and snow, and the base camp where most climbing expeditions are, said Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
Tshering said details were unclear because communication between the base camp and the rest of the Everest region was intermittent.
Nepal's Home Ministry said that the 30 people who were injured were at the base camp.
People free a man from the rubble of a destroyed building. Photo / EPA
The earthquake also shook several cities across northern India, and was felt as far away as Lahore in Pakistan and Lhasa in Tibet, 550km east of Kathmandu. The epicenter was 80km northwest of Kathmandu.
Pushpa Das, a labourer, ran from the house when the first quake struck but could not escape a collapsing wall that injured his arm.
"It was very scary. The earth was moving ... I am waiting for treatment but the (hospital) staff is overwhelmed," he said, gingerly holding his right arm with his left hand. As he spoke dozens of more people showed up with injuries, mostly from falling bricks.
Several buildings collapsed in the center of the capital, the ancient Old Kathmandu, including centuries-old temples and towers, said resident Prachanda Sual. Among them was the Dharahara Tower, one of Kathmandu's landmarks built by Nepal's royal rulers in the 1800s and a UNESCO-recognised historical monument. It was reduced to rubble and there were reports of people trapped underneath.
Old Kathmandu city is a warren of tightly packed, narrow lanes with poorly constructed homes piled on top of each other.
Sual said he saw people running through the streets in panic. Ambulance sirens blared and government helicopters hovered overhead.
An injured person is treated outside the Medicare Hospital in Kathmandu. Photo / AP
National radio warned people to stay outdoors and maintain calm because more aftershocks were feared. A 6.6-magnitude aftershock hit about an hour after the initial quake. But smaller aftershocks continued to arrive every few minutes and residents reported of the ground feeling unstable.
Dozens of people were gathered in the parking lot of Kathmandu's Norvic International Hospital, where thin mattresses had been spread on the ground for patients rushed outside, some patients wearing hospital pajamas, while doctors and nurses were treating people. A woman with a bandage on her head sat in a set of chairs pulled from the hospital waiting room.
Doctors and nurses had hooked up some patients to IV drops in the parking lot, or were giving people oxygen.
Nepal's Information Minister Minendra Rijal told India's NDTV station that there are reports of damage in and around Kathmandu but no immediate word on casualties. He said rescue teams were on the scene.
The Kathmandu Valley is densely populated with nearly 2.5 million people, and the quality of buildings is often poor.
An Associated Press reporter in Kathmandu said a wall in his compound collapsed and there was damage to nearby buildings.
A Swedish woman, Jenny Adhikari, who lives in Nepal, told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that she was riding a bus in the town of Melamchi when the earth began to move.
People search for survivors stuck under the rubble of a destroyed building. Photo / EPA
"A huge stone crashed only about 20 meters (yards) from the bus," she was quoted as saying. "All the houses around me have tumbled down. I think there are lot of people who have died," she told the newspaper by telephone. Melamchi is about 45km northeast of Kathmandu.
The US Geological Survey revised the magnitude from 7.5 to 7.9 and said the quake hit at 11.56am local time (7.11pm NZT) at Lamjung a shallow depth of 11km. An earthquake's magnitude increases by 10 times with each increase in the number. A magnitude-7 quake is capable of widespread and heavy damage while an 8 magnitude quake can cause tremendous damage.
Mohammad Shahab, a resident from Lahore, Pakistan, said he was sitting in his office when the earthquake rocked the city near the border with India.
The sustained quake also was felt in India's capital of New Delhi. AP reporters in Indian cities of Lucknow in the north and Patna in the east also reported strong tremors.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a meeting of top government officials to review the damage and disaster preparedness in parts of India that felt strong tremors. The Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Sikkim, which share a border with Nepal, have reported building damage. There have also been reports of damage in the northeastern state of Assam.
Nepal suffered its worst recorded earthquake in 1934, which measured 8.0 and all but destroyed the cities of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan.
The sustained quake also was felt in India's capital of New Delhi. AP reporters in Indian cities of Lucknow in the north and Patna in the east also reported strong tremors.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a meeting of top government officials to review the damage and disaster preparedness in parts of India that felt strong tremors.
The Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Sikkim, which share a border with Nepal, have reported building damage. There have also been reports of damage in the northeastern state of Assam. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif offered "all possible help" that Nepal may need.
The avalanche struck between the Khumbu Icefall, a notoriously treacherous rugged area of collapsed ice and snow, and the base camp where most climbing expeditions are, said Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
An official with Nepal's mountaineering department, Gyanendra Shretha, said the bodies of eight people had been recovered and an unknown number remain missing or injured.
The world's highest mountain is scaled by hundreds every year who brave extreme weather, a hostile terrain and unpredictable avalanches, one of which killed 16 Sherpa guides almost exactly a year ago.
Nepal's Home Ministry had earlier said that 30 people were injured at the base camp, while other climbers gave unconfirmed reports of more avalanches elsewhere on the mountain.
"We are starting to receive the injured, the most severe of them with many fractures, he was blown away by the avalanche and broke both legs. For the camps closer to where the avalanche hit, our Sherpas believe that a lot of people may have been buried in their tents," Danish climber Carsten Lillelund Pedersen wrote on Facebook. He and his Belgian companion, Jelle Veyt, were at the Khumbu Icefall, close to the base camp at an altitude of 5,000 meters (16,500 feet) when the earthquake hit.
He said that a steady flow of people were fleeing the base camp for more secure areas down the mountain.
Local reports in China said an amateur team encountered an avalanche on the north slope of the mountains at an elevation of more than 7,000 meters (22,965feet) and safely retreated to a camp at a lower elevation.
Thomas Frese Carlsen, a Danish schoolteacher who was in Nepal with 12 students from Denmark, said that rumors of another quake caused many to sleep out in the open.
"We will sleep outside tonight, on the lawn," he told Denmark's TV2 channel. He described the quake as "freakin' wild."
Climber Robin Trygg told the Swedish news agency TT his Sherpa guides had been in radio contact with other guides on Everest and that they reported an avalanche there hitting as many as 80 people.
"We were sitting in the tent and drinking tea when the earth, all of a sudden, began shaking. We didn't understand what happened," he told the news agency by telephone.
Another Swedish climber, Jenny Adhikari, was riding a bus in the town of Melamchi when she said she felt earth moving.
"All the houses around me have tumbled down. I think there are lot of people who have died," she told he Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. "A huge stone crashed only 20 meters from the bus."
