UPDATE 11:30 A.M. EST:
More than 2,400 people have been killed and nearly 6,000 people have been injured after the earthquake hit, according to the NY Times.
Nepal’s government has set up several relief stations across the nation’s capital and the country while distributing aid to the victims.
We will continue to keep you updated.
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An earthquake, with roughly a 7.8 magnitude, shook a town near Nepal’s capital, Katmandu. Thousands have been injured and nearly 700 people have been found dead.
NY Times reports:
Residents of Katmandu ran into the streets and other open spaces as buildings fell, throwing up clouds of dust, and wide cracks opened on paved streets and the walls of city buildings. Overflowing hospitals were treating injured patients on the street, and Nepal’s leading television station, its studios crushed, was broadcasting from the pavement outside.
Witnesses recall seeing everything around them tragically fall apart when the earthquake struck around noon, as the current death toll is at 686, and counting.
There have also reportedly been 12 aftershocks, with one reaching a magnitude of 6.6.
The site continues:
Seismologists have long feared a big earthquake in western Nepal, where there is pent-up pressure between tectonic plates grinding up against one another. Though there have been a series of earhquakes in the region over the last century, none resulted in a full release of seismic energy, said Ganesh K. Bhattari, a Nepali expert on earthquakes now living in Denmark.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the country of Nepal.
SOURCE: NY Times | PHOTO/VIDEO CREDIT: Getty, News Inc.
