World rushes aid to Nepal amid 2,300 deaths, new tremors

Kathmandu, April 26 , 2015: Another quake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale shook Nepal on Sunday causing fresh panic as rescuers pulled out bodies from debris, a day after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake left over 2,300 dead and forced tens of thousands to spend the night on the streets. As the world rushed emergency aid to Kathmandu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over a high-level meeting in New Delhi after saying: "I can understand what the people of Nepal are going through... My dear brothers and sisters of Nepal, we are with you." The home ministry put the fatalities from Saturday's powerful quake at 2,309 and said another 5,850 people were injured. It is the worst quake to hit Nepal after one in 1934 killed some 8,500 people. Fearing the continuing aftershocks, many thousands of people spent Saturday night out in the open. Many lay on plastic sheets or cardboard boxes wrapped in blankets. Most ate instant noodles and cookies to ward off the hunger. Hospitals grappled with soaring number of injuries, the doctors and nurses working non-stop. A UN statement said hospitals were running out of rooms to store bodies and emergency supplies. The government declared a national calamity and closed down all schools and colleges for a week as it tried to come to grips with a disaster which has enveloped 30 out of 75 districts, including the Kathmandu Valley, a tourist paradise. Even as an army of soldiers, police personnel and other officials were frantically engaged in relief work, another powerful tremblor occurred on Sunday afternoon, causing aftershocks again in India, Bhutan and Tibet.