Death toll at large Nepal earthquake rises to 449: Police

A powerful, 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook Nepal's capital and the densely populated Kathmandu Valley before noon on April 25, collapsing houses, temples The death toll from a powerful quake that struck Nepal on Saturday has risen to 449, most of it in the Kathmandu Valley, police said. 

The 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook Nepal's capital and the densely populated Kathmandu Valley before noon on April 25, collapsing houses, centuries-old temples and cutting open roads in the worst tremor in the Himalayan nation in over 80 years.

"The number of dead so far is 449," Reuters quoted police deputy inspector general Kamal Singh Bam as saying. 

"In Kathmandu 71 have been reported dead so far," home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal had told AFP earlier.
Another 43 had been reported dead in the nearby Bhaktapur district, he added.

Dozens of people with injuries were being brought to the main hospital in central Kathmandu, The Associated Press reported.

China's state broadcaster said one Chinese tourist was killed in Nepal, but there was no independent confirmation.

The earthquake also shook several cities across northern India, and was felt as far away as Lahore in Pakistan. The epicenter was 80 kilometers northwest of Kathmandu.

Several buildings collapsed in the center of the capital, the ancient Old Kathmandu, including centuries-old temples and towers, said resident Prachanda Sual. Among them was the Dharahara Tower, one of Kathmandu's landmarks built by Nepal's royal rulers in the 1800s and a UNESCO-recognized historical monument.

It was reduced to a rubble and there were reports of people trapped in the rubble.

Old Kathmandu city is a warren of tightly packed,...