Fresh quake jolts Nepal as death toll crosses 7,500

KATHMANDU: A fresh tremor of magnitude 4.0 today jolted the quake-hit Nepal, where the death toll from the April 25 deadly temblor has risen to over 7,500.

The feeble tremor at "6:39 am, was epicentred on the border of Dhading and Nuwakot districts," National Seismological Centre chief Lok Bijaya Adhikari told PTI.

The two districts which are the part of Nepal's Bagmati Zone have suffered extensively in the April 25 earthquake which left a trail of death and destruction.

Several aftershocks have followed since the 7.9-magnitude quake, which besides claiming an overwhelming number of human lives from the remote Sindhupalchowk district to the heart of the capital in Kathmandu, have turned people anxious and paranoid.

"143 aftershocks of magnitude greater than 4.0 on Richter Scale have occurred after the April 25 quake," Adhikari said.

"Today, we also did survey of some of the eastern parts of the country like Sindhuli and Udayapur districts and assessed the damage there and relief requirements further thereof," he added.

According to a report by the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), "as on May 4, the earthquake has destroyed 1,91,058 homes and damaged 1,75,162 homes."

Two tremors had also rocked parts of Nepal on May 2, triggering landslides.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the April 25 temblor rose to 7,557 while the number of injured has reached 14,536.

The 1934 quake had claimed several thousands of lives on both sides of the Himalayas, besides destroying priceless cultural and architectural heritage of both Nepal and India.