CHARIKOT, Nepal — Nepal has been overwhelmed by its second powerful earthquake in less than three weeks, its prime minister said Thursday as he visited this normally placid foothills town, now filling up with frightened villagers desperate for government help.
Thousands of people coming from surrounding areas to seek help crowd the streets of Charikot, the administrative center of the isolated district hit hardest by Tuesday’s magnitude-7.3 quake, which killed at least 110 people and injured more than 2,300. The magnitude-7.8 earthquake that hit April 25 killed more than 8,150 people, injured tens of thousands more and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
“After the first quake, we were not prepared for a second one so big,” Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told reporters after arriving in Charikot by helicopter.
With hundreds of thousands of people left homeless, he said the coming monsoon rains loomed large.
“We need tents. Our people need shelter. With the rainy season, it will be difficult for people to survive in the open,” he said.