By The Daily Journalist.
More than a thousand dead. The Nepalese police has risen the toll to at least 1,883 of the number of victims of the devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale that has shaken Nepal today. Also there have been 4,655 wounded.
Six helicopters have landed at the base camp of Mount Everest to try to assist mountaineers who have been trapped by an avalanche. Rescue services have confirmed that 100 climbers are safe in camps 1 and 2.
The rescue corps of the Army and the Nepalese authorities have been reinforced since the arrival of troops from India who are working in different parts of the capital, the most affected area.
This is the worst earthquake that struck the Himalayan region in the last 81 years. The earthquake has toppled several buildings, including a tower of the nineteenth century in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, and caused a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest, where ten climbers have died.
The government has declared a state of emergency in the affected areas and has appealed to the international community to send humanitarian aid, which has already responded by releasing a million US dollars. China and Israel have also announced that they will send rescue teams and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, has announced that the organization is preparing “a great effort” to assist the country.
The earthquake overtook a few survivors at the base camp and caused an avalanche from the Pumori peak has buried some camps, especially those that integrated Chinese and Japanese mountaineers. The situation at the base of Everest is now a “chaos”, helicopters can not access and installed a field hospital to treat the wounded.
In Kathmandu, many buildings have plumeth and walls of several houses have been reduced to rubble. “Everyone is on the street. People have rushed to the hospital,” he said a reporter for Reuters.
In several areas of the Nepalese capital have collapsed buildings, particularly old ones, including temples and monuments, and thousands of people are on the streets before the risk of collapsing buildings.
The Nepalese writer Kashish Das Shrestha said that Durbar Square in central Kathmandu, culturally important and declared World Heritage by UNESCO, is in an unrecognizable state. The Dharhara tower, nine plants, has collapsed and several people were trapped among the ruins.
Kathmandu residents rushed out of their homes in panic. Telephone communications and telephony coverage has been affected by the earthquake, which has opened cracks in streets and driveways.
