Nepal was hit by an earthquake on Friday night which has killed at least 132 people so far, but the death toll continues to rise.
The American Geological Survey reported that the quake had a magnitude of 5.6, so strong that the quake was felt as far away as India's capital New Delhi, some 500 kilometres away.
Its epicentre was situated 18 kilometres deep, in the sparsely populated region around Jajarkot in the west of the country, not far from the border with Tibet.
The damage caused by the quake makes it particularly difficult to reach the remote region. The latest update from the authorities on Saturday noted that at least 132 people had been found dead, and many more were injured.
"In Jajarkot 92 people were killed, in Rukum 40," said the Home Affairs Ministry spokesperson. Those two districts are, so far known, the worst affected. More than 100 people were also injured there, according to the Nepal Police.
It is difficult to contact the affected area because it is still dark, it is very cold and the many landslides make the remote villages in the mountains virtually inaccessible.
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"The isolation of the districts makes it difficult to pass on information," said the police spokesperson in Karnali province. "Some roads are blocked, but we are trying to reach the zone by other means."
Mountainous Nepal sits atop a fault line and has regularly been affected by earthquakes in the past. In 2015, nearly 9,000 people were killed when the country was hit by two earthquakes, one of which was a severe one with a magnitude of 7.8. More than half a million houses were then completely destroyed and entire villages were wiped out.
