More than 4,600 people dead and 9,000 injured, while eight million were affected across Nepal by the massive earthquake which hit the country on Saturday. One million children are in urgent need of help in the Himalayan country.
Devastating scenes of loss and suffering are happening across this small nation as it bounces back from its deadliest natural disaster in the last century.
As Nepal coped with the earthquake, another natural disaster hit Tuesday afternoon in an important trekking area north of Kathmandu. More than 200 people were believed to be missing as a result of a huge landslide.
It happened around in the afternoon in Langtang National Park, explained Ramesh Dhamala, president of the Trekking Agents of Nepal. Laxmi Dhakal, spokesman for Nepal’s Home Ministry, mentioned he was informed about the landslide but wasn’t not able to immediately confirm details.
Earthquake relief efforts carried on Tuesday, but local officials said that they were hindered by problems of supplying aid to the country and then getting it to some of the most remote communities which are in desperate need of help.
In Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, shattered temples and toppled houses are seen everywhere, while some people paid their last respects to the ones they lost in the quake.
As workers minded the flames for the cremation ceremonies, some of mourners had their heads shaven according to the tradition.
Elsewhere in the city, many citizens are sleeping in the open. Their homes were destroyed. Others are afraid to live in buildings that could be very vulnerable to aftershocks after the massive quake.
Large campsites of tents have appeared in open spaces, among them a wide area of the military which lays in the center of the city and is usually used for parades. One of the huge gates to the area was reduced to rubble.
The force of nature showed no mercy to the thousands and thousands of homeless on Tuesday as many thunderstorms and fast winds blasted over Kathmandu. The forecast is not a good one. More rain is expected to hit the region in the coming days.
Good news came from Turkish and Chinese rescue teams, which helped pull free a 21-year-old man who was trapped under huge pile of rubble close to a city bus park after a rescue mission that lasted 13 hours.
Image Source: CNN