Second quake in Nepal, Paris deploys crisis unit
A 7.3-magnitude aftershock struck Nepal on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people and injuring 335, just two weeks after the devastating quake that killed more than 8,150 people and injured more than 17,860.
Issued on: Modified:
The second quake is part of a chain reaction in the seismic hotspot. “This is because the movement produced by the first quake adds extra stress on other faults and destabilises them” said Carmen Solana, a volcanologist at Britain’s University of Portsmouth.
The new earthquake’s epicenter was 55 miles east of Kathmandu and the April quake occurred a similar distance west of the capital.
Paul Dillon with the International Organisation of Migration told RFI that people in Kathmandu were seriously shaken by the earthquake on Tuesday
“It was the type of quake, which makes everything move as if they were on an ocean wave. The field next to where I stopped my car when the quake occurred was quickly filled with hundreds of people running out of buildings,” Dillon said.
Meanwhile, people in Nepal are pulling together in the midst of their fear, grief and discomfort.
Peter McGeachie, director of Help Age International told RFI his organisation is distributing small cash amounts they’ve raised to people over 60, to help them and their close family with catering for immediate needs.
He says it’s really encouraging and heartening in the circumstances to see “the solidarity since the 25 April disaster where communities have rallied round and recognised the particular vulnerability of the elderly, of children, of pregnant women. It’s a real credit to the Nepalis.”
Paris has immediately deployed a new crisis unit as the French foreign ministry announced on Monday that 10 French nationals were killed on the first quake that struck Nepal.
Over 80 years prior to Tuesday’s quake, eastern Nepal had an 8.1 tremor in 1934. Around 10,700 people were killed in Nepal and neighbouring India.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe