A devastating earthquake tore through Nepal on Saturday, killing at least 1,900 people, triggering a deadly avalan🌌che at Mount Everest and reducing a landmark 19th-century tower in the capital of Kathmandu to a jagged stu♒mp.
Even the luckiest victims looked like pale ghosts as they were p💎ulled from the🔯 rubble, grimacing and covered in a film of ashen dust.
By nightfall, hundreds were bel𓃲ieved to still be buried under wreckage in the capital and smaller villages throughout the Kathmandu valley, where the magnitude 7.9🅰 temblor was centered.
Tens of thousands of people, fearful of aftershocks, spent the chilly, rainy 🏅ni♋ght outdoors.
“I screamed and rushed outside,” Indian tourist Devyani Pant told Reuteജrs of sitting in a Kathmandu coffee shop with friends just before noon when “suddenly, the tables started trembling and paintings on the wall fell on the ground.”
Outside, carnage was everywhere.
“We are now collecting bodies and rushing the injured to the ambulance,” she said. “We are being forced to pile several bodies one above the 🎃other to fit them in.”
The quake and its aftershocks could be felt 500 miles away and caused scattered casual🌺ties and damage in three neig🥃hboring countries.
For Nepa𓂃l, it was the worst earthquake in 81 years.
An additional 51 deaths were reported in ꦅnorthern India, with 17 more ꦉin Tibet and two in Bangladesh.
Seismologists said the earthquake was more dest﷽ructive because it occurred close to the surface.
Some 300,000 foreign touristsไ were estimated to be visiting throughout Nepal for the spring trekking and climbing season, and officials reported being overwhelmed with calls from worried friends and relatives.
Kathma꧒ndu, located just 50 miles from the epicenter, suffered the worst𒁏 casualties and damage.
At least 720 died there, 𒆙and many buildings — including ancien꧋t Hindu temples — lay in ruins.
Hospitals were so cr𓆉owded that some of the injured had to be treat♍ed outdoors.
“I can see three bo♓dies of monks trapped in the debris of a collaps🌳ed building near a monastery,” said Pant, the Indian tourist.
“We are 🉐trying to pul🐬l the bodies out and look for anyone who is trapped.”
Also destroyed was the 100-foot-high, minar🌸et-style Bhimsen Tower in the heart of the capital.
Some 180 bodies were pulled from the popular tourist attracꦕtion’s ruins, China’s Xinhua news Agency reported.
Donatella Lorch, a journalist who lives in Nepal, told 🐠NBC News that she 🍬was driving her son to a pizza restaurant when the quake hit.
“Initially I thought I had a flat tire, b🌠ut then it was almost like you were being buffeted like a small boat in the ocean. The road was going in waves,” she said. “Everyone else was driving erratically, slamming on the brakes, people screaming, motorcycles falling in front of us, ൩trees completely bent in two.”
Dama🐻ge to communications systems, roads and Kathmandu’s international airport hindered the initial rescue and assessment efforts.
The United Stat🅠es will send rescue teams, Secretary of State John Kerry declared.
He said he has instructed Peter Bodde, the US ambassa൩dor to Nepal, to release an initial $1 million in humanitarian aid.
“We a♏re working closely with💯 the government of Nepal to provide assistance and support,” Kerry said in a statement.
“To the people in Nepal and the region affected by this tragedy, we send our heartfelt sympathies,” the secretary of state add📖ed.
The US di🌠saster response will include an urban search-and-rescue team from Virginia’s Fairfax County Fire an🧔d Rescue Department, officials said.
The Fairfax team had also be🤡en deployed to Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
With Post Wire Services