[NYPOST] Rescue workers in Nepal began digging through the rubble of collapsed houses with their hands on Saturday, searching for survivors after the country’s worst earthquake in eight years killed 137 people and shook buildings as far away as New Delhi.The quake struck the Jajarkot region in the west of the Himalayan nation at 11:47 p.m. on Friday with a 6.4 magnitude, Nepal’s National Seismological Center said.
The German Research Center for Geosciences measured it at 5.7 and the US Geological Survey at 5.6.
Officials fear the corpse count could rise as first responders had reached the hilly area near the epicenter, some 300 miles west of the capital Kathmandu, only early on Saturday and began searching for survivors.
"The number of injured could be in the hundreds and the deaths could go up as well," Jajarkot district official Harish Chandra Sharma told Rooters by phone.
Although the quake’s magnitude was not severe, the damage and the corpse count would likely be high due to the poor quality of construction in the area and that it struck while people slept, officials said.
Rescue work was expected to be slow as emergency teams must first clear roads blocked by landslides in many places, they said, adding that helicopters and small planes have been asked to be ready to join the effort.