At least 132 people were killed in an overnight earthquake in a remote area of Nepal, officials said, as security forces rushed to help with rescue efforts.
The 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck the extreme west of the Himalayan late Friday and was measured by the US Geological Survey at a depth of just 18 km.
Videos and footage posted on social media show local residents digging through the rubble in the dark to pull out survivors from the remains of collapsed homes and buildings.
Houses were levelled or damaged, and survivors scrambled outside for safety as emergency car horns blared.
The earthquake was felt even in the capital of India, New Delhi, nearly 500 km from the epicentre, 42 km south of Jumla.
"In our district, 26 people have died and many have been injured," Jhajjarkot district chief Suresh Sunar told AFP.
"It is still night and it is difficult to get all the information," he added. "The number of victims may rise."
Nepal is located on a major geological fault, where the Indian tectonic plate pushes against the Eurasian one, forming the Himalayas, and earthquakes are a regular occurrence.
The government has deployed security forces to assist in rescue operations.
"We have information that in two areas there are human and material damages as a result of the earthquake and the security forces have been mobilized for rescue work," said the spokesman of the interior ministry Nararian Prasad Bhattarai.
He added that the number of victims has not yet been confirmed.
Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal expressed "deep sorrow for the human and physical damage caused by the earthquake."
Nearly 9,000 people died and over 22,000 were injured in 2015 when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked Nepal and destroyed over half a million homes.
It damaged or destroyed nearly 8,000 schools, leaving nearly one million children without classrooms.
Hundreds of monuments and royal palaces - including UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley - that had attracted visitors from around the world were destroyed, dealing a serious blow to tourism.
The total economic losses from the disaster are estimated at 7 billion dollars. /BGNES
