A magnitude 6.1 earthquake shakes central Nepal with no casualties

Kathmandu, October 22 (EFE).- An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 shook central Nepal on Sunday, with authorities reporting no material damage or casualties so far due to an earthquake that was felt in several provinces in this Asian country.

The earthquake was registered at 07:39 local time (1:54 GMT) with its epicenter in Dhading district, a mountainous area in the center of the country near Kathmandu and which is part of Bagmati province, according to the National Center of Earthquake Monitoring and research in Nepal.

This institution reported up to three aftershocks that occurred up to an hour apart from the first tremor, but of low magnitude.

Authorities have yet to report any casualties or damage to infrastructure.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) downgraded the earthquake’s magnitude to 5.2.

Nepal is among the countries most prone to natural disasters and has a highly vulnerable population, mostly poor, in addition to lacking sufficient infrastructure to deal with floods or earthquakes.

According to the Asian Preparedness Partnership (APP), an alliance created to coordinate emergency preparedness among Asian countries, Kathmandu is the national capital at the highest risk of earthquakes among 21 megacities around the world.

On April 25, 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal, toppling multi-story buildings in Kathmandu and triggering landslides and avalanches in the mountains. Almost 9,000 people were killed and more than 22,000 injured.

This disaster also left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and caused damages worth almost 6.47 billion euros. More than seven years after the earthquake, reconstruction work has not been completed, slowed in part by the effects of the pandemic. EFE

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