‘As buildings toppled, we ran around the rubble’

Kathmandu, April 26

Survivors of the devastating earthquake in Nepal that killed over 2,000 people had horrific tales of the nature's fury that reduced houses, temples and historical monuments to rubble.

Thomas Nybo, a freelance photographer, was sitting in a coffee shop in Kathmandu's Thamel district and to him, it appeared to be a minor tremor at first but gradually gained intensity.

"This region is no stranger to earthquakes. A lot of people had the same feeling: This is a tremor, it passed. When that wasn't the case, they were in uncharted territory... It's basically an unwritten book," he said.

Thousands poured onto the streets of the densely populated tourist hub, he said, adding that he spotted a woman who was standing beside huge amount of rubble under which she said children were trapped. "We ran over and ran around the rubble and couldn't hear anything. There was no chance that they survived," Nybo said.

A local who was near the Dharhara tower recalled how the iconic tower shook and then fell off. "I was around 500 metres away when it shook initially and then fell off suddenly... There was dust all over and nothing was visible.

“There were a lot of people inside the tower as it was a holiday... Many tourists were also there," he said. P Shrestha, a police official, said nearly 200 people had bought the tickets for the historical Dharhara tower. — PTI