A massive earthquake shook Nepal this morning, killing at least four people and sending thousands of people in the capital Kathmandu rushing out in to the streets
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.3 and struck in an isolated, conservation area 42 miles west of the town of Namche Bazar, close to Mount Everest and the border with Tibet.
A spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration confirmed that at least four people had been killed in the town of Chautara.
Shockwaves were felt over thousands of miles and as far apart as Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and the Indian capital New Delhi, where buildings swayed for more than a minute and people scurried into the streets.
It comes less than three weeks after a devastating 7.8 magnitude quake killed more than 8,000 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes in the region.
Speaking of the earthquake, Kathmandu-based businesswoman Shiwani Neupane told MailOnline: 'I was on the sixth floor of my office building when the quake hit. We had been discussing re-building of a village...The meeting had just ended, and suddenly, the sofa I was sitting on started shaking.
'At first, we thought it was a slight tremor but in seconds it felt bigger. My mother, father and I were in the office and we rushed towards the door but the building started swinging... Everyone was praying in their own way. Some were calling God's name out loud and others were more quiet.
'I knew the building had been constructed safely, so I kept thinking of that. Once the tremors subsided, everyone ran downstairs. I kept saying, don't run, don't run please because while reporting at the hospital, I had learnt that many get hit badly while running.
'Once we were outside, there was chaos in the street. The ground was still shaking. People were calling their loved ones. We walked right to the middle of the street, and stood there as motorcycles zoomed past us...The ground was still shaking and there was fear in so many people's eyes.'
'Soon, we got on our car, and drove back home... [but] we had to stop in the middle of the road because of another tremor.
'I saw patients in Prashuti Griha - the maternal hospital for women - crowded. There was a doctor in slippers and a mask. He looked like he might have run out of a surgery. There were groups and groups of people gathered outside everywhere.
Elsewhere in Kathmandu, parents could be seen clutching children tightly and hundreds of people were frantically trying to call relatives on their mobile phones.
Shopkeepers closed their shops and the streets were jammed with people rushing to check on their families.
Paul Dillon, a spokesman with the International Organization for Migration later confirmed that at least four people had been killed in Chautara.
A rescue team from the agency has begun searching through the wreckage of the little town, he said.
Chautara has become a hub for humanitarian aid in the wake of a major April 25 quake .
Gisli Olafsson Emergency Response Director of humanitarian organization NetHope tweeted: 'Our colleagues in Chautara report buildings collapsing there in the 7.1M aftershock #NepalQuake'.
'People bringing hurt loved ones into the Red Cross hospital in Chautara after the 7M+ aftershock #NepalQuake', he added.
Mr Olafson initially described the quake as 7.1 magnitude because that what how it was initially registered by the U.S. Geological Survey. It was later upgraded to 7.4 before being downgraded down to 7.3.
Aftershocks of 5.6 and 6.3 magnitude hit Nepal less than an hour after the original quake.
Writing on Twitter before her mobile phone battery ran out, Ms Neupane described the chaos that broke out as the earthquake hit.
'We are very scared. Everyone is calling family members,' she said.
'Massive chaos on the street. People running out of homes. Ground is still shaking,' she added.
'The streets are completely chaotic. Blaring horns, people standing in the middle of the street... Chaos has ensued. Ambulances on road. Hope many don't die,' she went on to say.
The quake's epicentre was close to Everest Base Camp, which was evacuated after an avalanche triggered by the April 25 quake killed 18 climbers.
It struck 52 miles east of Kathmandu at a depth of 11.4 miles, according to the USGS, while the April 25 quake hit 9.3 miles below the surface.
Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage above ground.
'The shaking seemed to go on and on,' said Rose Foley, a UNICEF official based in Kathmandu. 'It felt like being on a boat in rough seas.'
Aid agencies are still struggling to get reports from outside of the capital.
'We're thinking about children across the country, and who are already suffering. This could make them even more vulnerable,' Foley said.
Norway's Red Cross, which was helping people from the April 25 earthquake at a 60-bed hospital in Chautara in central Nepal, said on Twitter in Norwegian that there were 'many injured, several killed' and added that their hospital tents already has gotten patients.
At the Norvic Hospital in Kathmandu, patients and doctors rushed to the parking lot.
'I thought I was going to die this time,' said Sulav Singh, who rushed with his daughter into the street in the suburban neighborhood of Thapathali. 'Things were just getting back to normal, and we get this one.'
Nepalese people have been terrified by dozens of aftershocks that hit the country in the days following the April 25 quake.
Meanwhile, the impoverished country has appealed for billions of dollars in aid from foreign nations, as well as medical experts to treat the wounded and helicopters to ferry food and temporary shelters to hundreds of thousands left homeless amid unseasonal rains and unreachable with landslides blocking many mountain roads.
'This was a jolt just like the big one last month, though it was not that long,' said Kathmandu resident Avinav Shrestha. 'I was very scared, though. Anything can happen.'
Strong shaking was also felt across northern India. In the Indian capital of New Delhi, people scrambled outdoors while buildings swayed.
Across the Nepalese border in Tibet's Jilong and Zhangmu regions, the Earth shook strongly. Tremors were also felt slightly in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
'Rocks fell from the mountains,' Jilong county government vice chief Wang Wenxiang was quoted as saying by China News Service. 'There might be some houses collapsed or damaged. We are now checking on the condition of the people.'
Mountaineers seeking to scale the world's tallest peak have called off this year's Everest season.
The quake came just hours after the Nepalese army rescued 117 people - including two U.S. citizens who had been searching for a missing relative - who had been stranded in trekking villages after the April 25 quake.
The 115 Nepalis and two Americans were evacuated from Syanjen, Kenjing and Langtang Village, where hundreds of people were killed in a huge landslide and avalanche triggered by last month's earthquake.
All of those rescued by the Nepalese Army this morning were stranded in the three popular trekking villages in Rasuwa district.
A series of avalanches and bad weather in the area had slowed the military's efforts to reach those cut off after the April 25 quake. It is not known how today's tremors affected the mission.
'The entire Langtang Valley has turned into a rocky and snowy ruin due to avalanches,' said Uddhav Bhattarai, Rasuwa's district administrator.
Learnt from Mail Online
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