More than 2,200 confirmed dead in Nepal earthquake 

Rescue workers remove debris as they search for victims of earthquake in Bhaktapur near Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, April 26, 2015.

(PHOTO: AP)KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A powerful aftershock shook Nepal on Sunday, making buildings sway and sending panicked Kathmandu residents running into the streets a day after a massive earthquake left more than 2,200 people dead.
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The cawing of crows mixed with terrified screams as the magnitude 6.7 aftershock pummelled the capital city early Sunday afternoon.

It came as planeloads of supplies, doctors and relief workers from neighbouring countries began arriving in this poor Himalayan nation.”The aftershocks keep coming … so people don’t know what to expect,” said Sanjay Karki, Nepal country head for global aid agency Mercy Corps.

“All the open spaces in Kathmandu are packed with people who are camping outdoors. When the aftershocks come you cannot imagine the fear. You can hear women and children crying.

“Saturday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake spread horror from Kathmandu to small villages and to the slopes of Mount Everest, triggering an avalanche that buried part of the base camp packed with foreign climbers preparing to make their summit attempts. At least 17 people died there and 61 were injured.The earthquake centred outside Kathmandu, the capital, was the worst to hit the South Asian nation in over 80 years.

It destroyed swaths of the oldest neighbourhoods of Kathmandu, and was strong enough to be felt all across parts of India, Bangladesh, China’s region of Tibet and Pakistan. By Sunday afternoon, authorities said at least 2,169 people had died in Nepal alone, with 61 more deaths in India and a few in other neighbouring countries. At least 721 of them died in Kathmandu alone, and the number of injured nationwide was upward of 5,000.

With search and rescue efforts far from over, it was unclear how much the death toll would rise.But outside of the oldest neighbourhoods, many in Kathmandu were surprised by how few modern structures — the city is largely a collection of small, poorly constructed brick apartment buildings — collapsed in the quake. While aid workers cautioned that many buildings could have sustained serious structural damage, it was also clear that the death toll would have been far higher had more buildings caved in.

On a flight into Kathmandu on Sunday morning, an AP correspondent was unable to spot any collapsed buildings.Aid workers also warned that the situation could be far worse near the epicentre. The US Geological Survey said the quake was centred near Lamjung, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north-west of Kathmandu, in the Gorkha district.Roads to that area were blocked by landslides, hindering rescue teams, said chief district official Prakash Subedi.

Teams were trekking through mountain trails to reach remote villages, and helicopters would also be deployed, he said by telephone.The aid group World Vision said in a statement that remote mountain communities, including in Gorkha, were totally unprepared for the level of destruction caused by the earthquake.

Villages near the epicentre “are literally perched on the sides of large mountain faces and are made from simple stone and rock construction. Many of these villages are only accessible by 4WD and then foot, with some villages hours and even entire days’ walks away from main roads at the best of times,” the group’s local staff member, Matt Darvas, said in the statement.

He said he was hearing that many of the villages may have been completely buried by rock falls.”It will likely be helicopter access only for these remote villages,” he said.Nepal’s worst recorded earthquake in 1934 measured 8.0 and all but destroyed the cities of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan.

With people fearing more quakes, tens of thousands of Nepalese spent Saturday night outside under chilly skies, or in cars and public buses. They were jolted awake by strong aftershocks early Sunday.”There were at least three big quakes at night and early morning. How can we feel safe? This is never-ending and everyone is scared and worried,” said Kathmandu resident Sundar Sah. “I hardly got much sleep.

I was waking up every few hours and glad that I was alive.”As day broke, rescuers aided by international teams set out to dig through rubble of buildings — concrete slabs, bricks, iron beams, wood — to look for survivors.In the Kalanki neighbourhood of Kathmandu, police rescuers finally extricated a man lying under a dead person, both of them buried beneath a pile of concrete slabs and iron beams.

Before his rescue, his family members stood nearby, crying and praying. Police said the man’s legs and hips were totally crushed.Hundreds of people in Kalanki gathered around the collapsed Lumbini Guest House, once a three-story budget hotel and restaurant frequented by Nepalese. They watched with fear and anticipation as a single backhoe dug into the rubble.Police officer RP Dhamala, who was coordinating the rescue efforts, said they had already pulled