Second major earthquake shakes Nepal

A major earthquake hit a remote mountainous region of Nepal on Tuesday, killing at least four people, triggering landslides and toppling buildings less than three weeks after the country was ravaged by its by its worst quake in decades.

Information was slow to reach the capital of Kathmandu, but officials and aid workers said they expected the death toll would almost certainly rise.

Rescue helicopters were sent to districts northeast of the capital of Kathmandu, where landslides and buildings collapsed by the magnitude-7.3 quake may have left people buried, the government said. Home Ministry spokesman Laxmi Dhakal named the Sindhupalchowk and Dolkha districts as the hardest hit.

At least four people were killed in Sindhulpalchowk's town of Chautara, according to Paul Dillon, a spokesman with the International Organization for Migration. More than 100 people were injured in surrounding villages, chief district officer Krishna Gyawali said.

Rescuers fanned out to search for survivors in the wreckage of Chautara, which has become a hub for humanitarian aid after the 7.8-magnitude quake on April 25 that killed more than 8,150 people and injured more than 17,860 as it flattened mountain villages and destroyed buildings. It was Nepal's worst recorded earthquake since 1934. (AP)

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