(Bloomberg) -- An earthquake in Nepal on Tuesdaykilled at least 36 people and injured more than 1,000, a littleover two weeks after thousands died in an even more powerfultemblor.
|The 7.3 magnitude quake at 12:35 p.m. Indian time was centered76 kilometers (47 miles) east-northeast of Kathmandu at a depth of15 kilometers, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Tremors were feltas far away as India’s capital New Delhi.
|“Some buildings have fallen down,” Abhay Kumar, a spokesman atIndia’s embassy in Kathmandu, said by phone from the city. “Wehaven’t gotten any word of what things are like outside” Nepal’scapital, he said.
|The government estimates reconstruction costs fromApril’s earthquake alone will exceed $10 billion,equivalent to about half of Nepal’s $20 billion economy. Nepal isone of Asia’s poorest nations, with a gross domestic product that’ssmaller than any of the 50 U.S. states.
|The country’s Ministry of Home Affairs said at least 1,117 wereinjured today, apart from the dozens killed.
|The shaking “felt pretty big and it lasted more than a minute,”Rameshwor Dangal, an official at the ministry, said by phone fromKathmandu.
|A series of aftershocks, one as strong as 6.3 magnitude, hitafter the first earthquake today, the USGS said.
|People in Kathmandu are out on the streets fearing furthertremors, political analyst Lok Raj Baral said.
|Catastrophic Quakes
|The South Asia region has a history of catastrophic earthquakesbecause the tectonic plate that carries the Indian subcontinent ispushing northward into the main Asian plate.
|The 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal on April 25 --the most powerful to hit the country since at least 1934 -- wasmore than five times stronger than Tuesday’s temblor.
|The latest damage coupled with monsoon rains will make reliefwork more challenging, said Brooke Gibbons, who is working forhumanitarian organization CARE International in Kathmandu.
|Last month’s disaster killed more than 8,000 people, injuredclose to 18,000 and triggered deadly avalanches on MountEverest.
|--With assistance from Kartikay Mehrotra and Sam Nagarajan inNew Delhi.
|Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.
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