Iran Press/ Asia: The quake struck in the early hours of Wednesday when all families would have been at home and asleep. Its epicentre was located close to a national park in the sparsely populated Doti district, 430 km (270 miles) west of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.
Local television news channels showed rescuers clearing the rubble in the search for casualties and survivors, while women looked on, sitting in the open with babies wrapped in blankets to shield them from the cold.
Some 536 km (333 miles) to the southwest, residents of the Indian capital, New Delhi, were shaken awake by the power of the 5.6 magnitude tremblor, Reuters reported.
Ram Upadhyay, chairman of the Purbi Chowki rural municipality in Doti, said he was in a nearby village when the quake struck at 2.12 am (2027 GMT).
"It shook terribly and I rushed out immediately," he said. "Now we are collecting details including the dead bodies."
According to CNN, several houses were destroyed in the earthquake. A search and rescue operation is underway in the region now.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed condolences Wednesday on Twitter to the families of those killed.
“I have instructed the relevant agencies to arrange immediate and proper treatment of the injured and the victims in the relief and rescue (efforts) in the affected areas,” he wrote.
In 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Nepal, killing nearly 9000 people and flattening homes and buildings.
The landlocked country is where the tectonic plates of India and Eurasia collide, creating the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau, and making Nepal vulnerable to earthquakes.
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