Multiple houses are destroyed by an earthquake in Doti’s western district.
As eight houses collapsed, five other people were seriously injured.
Nepal’s Prime Minister extends heartfelt condolences.
KATHMANDU: An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck Nepal early Wednesday, killing at least six people and destroying multiple houses in the western district of Doti, officials said.
According to Bhola Bhatta, deputy superintendent of police in Doti, five other people were seriously injured when eight houses collapsed, confirming an earlier figure shared by home ministry official Tulsi Rijal. According to police, the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital.
Nepal is still rebuilding after two major earthquakes in 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people, destroyed entire towns and centuries-old temples, and cost the economy $6 billion.
“I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who perished in the earthquake,” Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said on Twitter. “I have directed the appropriate agencies to provide immediate and proper treatment to the injured and victims.”
According to Narayan Silwal, a spokesman for the Nepali army, a ground rescue team has been dispatched to the scene, and two helicopters are on standby in the nearby towns of Surkhet and Nepalgunj.
Kalpana Shrestha, a senior bureaucrat in Doti district, said information was being gathered from villages near the epicentre and that one child had been rescued from beneath the rubble.
The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.6, according to Nepal’s seismological center. The earthquake had a magnitude of 5.6, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).
The quake struck about 158 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Pilibhit, a populous city in the neighboring Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to EMSC.
According to media reports, tremors were felt in New Delhi and surrounding areas, about 350 kilometers (220 miles) from Doti.
