Update | Buildings collapse, more than 2,300 killed as 7.9 magnitude quake strikes Nepal

A powerful earthquake struck Nepal and sent tremors through northern India yesterday, killing more than 2,300 people, toppling a 19th-century tower in the capital Kathmandu and touching off a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest.

There were reports of devastation in outlying, isolated mountainous areas after the midday magnitude-7.9 quake, Nepal's worst in 81 years, centred 80km east of the second city, Pokhara.

A collapse in communications hampered relief efforts, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster across the impoverished Himalayan nation of 28 million.

Nepal’s Home Ministry said the death toll had reached at least 1,805 in Nepal alone, more than half of them in the Kathmandu Valley. A further 36 fatalities were reported in northern India and four in Bangladesh. At least 4,700 people have been injured. 

CCTV reported that at least 14 Chinese nationals had been killed, including 12 in Tibet and two construction workers in Pokhara. Nyalam and Gyirong were the counties most affected in Tibet, with buildings damaged and telecommunications cut off.