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People carry victims for cremation (in Jajarkot on November 5)

Photo: NARENDRA SHRESTHA / EPA

At least 157 people have died in the earthquake in Nepal. Dozens more were injured, a spokesman for the police in the capital Kathmandu told the dpa news agency on Sunday.

The quake had a magnitude of 6.4 according to measurements by the National Seismological Observatory (NEMRC) and occurred on Friday evening at 23:47 p.m. local time, when many people were asleep. The following day, footage on local Kantipur TV showed people searching for their belongings in destroyed houses and pulling injured victims out of the rubble.

According to the Nepalese police, 910 houses were completely destroyed and 2861,<> were partially destroyed. "Many houses were built in the traditional way - of stone and mud," said Sete Giri, a village representative in Jajarkot. "That could be the reason for the damage." According to the village representative, many people who otherwise regularly worked as migrant workers in the richer neighbouring country of India are currently in their homeland for important Hindu holidays such as the upcoming Diwali Festival of Lights. The quake was also felt in northern India.

Many residents have spent the nights since the quake outdoors, many without tents, said Purna Bahadur Khatri, a resident in Jajarkot. "We've heard that relief supplies have arrived from the government and the Red Cross," he said. "They will probably be distributed after a mass cremation." The Nepalese government decided on Saturday to pay families who have lost a member 200,000 rupees (about 1411,<> euros) each.

In some places, rescue work began shortly after the quake, while in other places in the mountainous Himalayan country it took much longer, said Harischandra Sharma, an administrative representative from Jajarkot district, where the center of the quake was located. In some cases, roads were blocked by landslides, and in others, helpers could only reach the remote places on foot anyway.

The affected areas are among the poorest in the poor country in South Asia. Footage from Kantipur TV also showed villagers helping themselves and their fellow human beings, for example without protective equipment. They used spades and headlamps.

Balbir Bishwakarma, a Jajarkot resident who lost his home in the quake, told the TV station that his close relatives had fortunately survived. But some of his friends have died, and he believes they might have survived if they had been rescued sooner.

In a letter to Nepalese President Ram Chandra Paudel, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his condolences: "I would like to express my deepest condolences to you and to the citizens of Nepal, many of whom were already affected by the terrible earthquake in 2015, also on behalf of the German people ... Our hope is that many of the missing can be recovered unharmed."

Mattresses and water filters are supplied

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal visited Jajarkot by helicopter on Saturday and met injured people at a local hospital, media reported. Some of the injured were also taken by air to hospitals for emergency treatment – including in the capital Kathmandu – because the affected areas do not have adequate infrastructure, it said.

Deutsche Welthungerhilfe announced on Sunday that it was sending the first relief supplies on its way together with European partners. In the Jajarkot district, mattresses, tarpaulins and water filters were to be distributed to the people.

The earthquake caused the most deaths in Nepal since the severe earthquake in the spring of 2015, which killed around 9000,<> people and left millions more homeless. The Himalayan region, in which Nepal is located, is geologically extremely active. There, the Indian continental plate slides under the Eurasian plate. This leads to quakes, there have also been several in recent weeks.

jok/dpa