(Bloomberg) -- A 6.4 magnitude earthquake jolted northwestern Nepal Friday night, killing more than 129 people and leaving scores injured.
Rescuers and emergency services were working through the rubble of collapsed buildings and expected the death toll to rise, the Associated Press reported, citing officials. At least 140 people were injured.
The tremor was recorded at 11:47 p.m. local time (6:02 p.m. UTC), with the epicenter in the Jajarkot district, according to Nepal's National Earthquake Monitoring & Research Center.
Troops were clearing roads and mountain trails blocked by landslides triggered by the quake, as helicopters dropped in medical workers and medicines to the hospitals in the area.
The tremors were felt in neighboring India too but there have been no reports of damage there so far. India “is ready to extend all possible assistance” to Nepal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter,
Nepal has a history of catastrophic earthquakes because the tectonic plate on which the Indian subcontinent is situated is pushing northward into the main Asian plate. A 7.8 magnitude tremor in April 2015 — the most powerful to hit Nepal since at least 1934 — killed more than 8,000 people, injured close to 18,000 and triggered deadly avalanches on Mount Everest.
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