This quake is worse than Latur, says Nepal survivor

For a 43-year-old doctor from Maharashtra, the sight of a shaking hotel in Kathmandu where he stayed when the killer quake stuck Nepal, brought back memories of the massive quake in his native place in 1993, which had claimed around 8,000 lives.

“The luxury hotel building where we were staying began to shake. When we ran outside, we saw the entire building swaying, like a leaf in the blowing wind,” Datta Gojamgunde, a leading paediatrician from Latur in the Marathwada region said.

Gojamgunde, who had landed in Nepal a day before the quake to attend an international conference on nutrition, returned to Delhi at 2 am on Monday and caught an early morning flight to Pune, before returning to Latur on Monday evening.

“A lot of people are still trapped there. A lot of Indians are waiting at the airport. Our military is extending the best possible help to them,” he said.

“I had gone to Nepal to attend the international conference. Around 70 doctors had gone to Nepal on April 24,” he said.

“When the quake struck, I heard a sound like that of a generator -- a whirring sound. Then everything began shaking. Even we were shaken. An old person in the hotel shouted: ‘Quake, quake, run run,’ after which we began running,” he said.

“Some of us fell down and glasses started breaking. Pillars started shaking. Chandeliers began shaking,” Gojamgunde said.

“After we came down, we saw the whole building shaking. I have experienced the Killari earthquake (in 1993, which claimed around 8,000 lives) but I have not seen an earthquake of such a magnitude,” he said.

Image: A member of Nepalese police personnel walks amidst the rubble of collapsed buildings, in the aftermath of Saturday’s earthquake in Kathmandu. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters