DHAKA: Thousands of people spent last night huddled under makeshift tents fashioned from plastic sheeting that did little to protect them from heavy rain, sleepless with fear as aftershocks rattled Nepal, where more than 3,700 people have died in Saturday's earthquake, news agency Reuters said citing a Home Ministry official.
Monday morning brought the sun and some respite in devastated Kathmandu, where rain on Sunday hampered rescue work. Progress on relief was also hit by nerve-shredding aftershocks, one a tremor of 5.4 magnitude a little before 10 last night.
"55 aftershocks have been observed till now," LS Rathore, Director General, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
People said they were too afraid to spend the night indoors in buildings already damaged by Saturday's earthquake. "We don't have a choice, our house is shaky. The rain is seeping in but what can we do," said 34-year-old shopkeeper Rabi Shrestha as he camped out on the roadside.
"I don't know why the gods want us to suffer like this," he said.
"We are making our own facilities, helping ourselves. There is no help from the government. There is no water. We picked up whatever we could and came here," said another local.
The situation has been exacerbated by power cuts and the country's cell phone network is at breaking point. Some shops have opened on Monday morning so people will have access to provisions.
Hospitals have been overwhelmed by the disaster, with morgues overflowing and medics having to work through the night to cope with an endless stream of victims suffering trauma or multiple fractures.
Some surgeons have been operating from makeshift theatres set up in parking lots with the aftershocks making patients too scared to stay inside.
At the city's oldest Bir Hospital, around a dozen bodies had to be placed on the floor, while stricken relatives stood vigil, trying to swat away the flies.
The Nepalese government said it was stepping up efforts to help remote areas closer to the epicentre of the quake. "Our focus is on rescue," home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal told AFP. An official said emergency crews would also step up their efforts to rescue those trapped in high-rise buildings which collapsed in Kathmandu.
On Sunday afternoon, a particularly big tremor of 6.7-magnitude saw the Kathmandu airport close down for a few hours and triggered more avalanches in the Himalayas after Saturday's 7.9 quake - which unleashed Everest's worst disaster and was the strongest since 1934 when 8,500 people were killed.
** Nepal quake death toll crosses 3200
BDST: 1809 HRS, APR 27, 2015
AKA
