A 7.3 magnitude earthquake killed at least 37 people and spread panic in Nepal on Tuesday, bringing down buildings already weakened by a devastating tremor less than three weeks ago and unleashing landslides in Himalayan valleys near Mount Everest.
Most of the reported fatalities were in villages to the east of Kathmandu, only just beginning to pick up the pieces after the April 25 quake that left more than 8,000 people dead.
The new earthquake was centered 76 km (47 miles) east of the capital in a hilly area close to the border with Tibet, according to coordinates provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Aid workers reported serious damage to some villages seen from the air and witnesses reported seeing rocks and mud crashing down remote hillsides lined with roads and small hamlets.
Politicians dashed for the exit of Nepal's parliament building and office towers swayed as far away as central New Delhi. The tremors could be felt in Bangladesh and were followed by a series of powerful aftershocks.
Terrified Kathmandu residents crammed into public spaces, too nervous to venture inside.
"I am very scared and I am with my two sons. The school building is cracked and bits of it, I can see they have collapsed," said Rhita Doma Sherpa, a nurse with the Mountain Medicine Center in Namche Bazaar, a departure point for trekkers headed to Everest.
"It was lunchtime. All the kids were outside. Thank god."
Three students were injured in another town in the Everest region, locals said.
MORE DAMAGE
Residents in the Indian town of Siliguri, near the border with Nepal, said chunks of concrete fell off one or two buildings.
RELATED COVERAGE
› Nepal earthquake kills 2 in neighboring India states
› SLIDESHOW Nepal earthquake kills dozens, triggers panic
In Nepal the death toll reached 37, with 1,066 injured, police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam said.
Five people were killed in Indian states bordering Nepal, according to officials, and Chinese media reported one person died in Tibet after rocks fell on a car.
Medecins Sans Frontieres emergency coordinator Dan Sermand said the village of Charikot near the epicenter had suffered the worst damage of the three villages the organization had surveyed by helicopter. An Indian Air Force team brought 11 injured people to Kathmandu from the Charikot area.
Nepal had barely begun to recover from the devastation caused by last month's 7.8-magnitude earthquake, the country's worst in more than 80 years, which killed at least 8,046 people and injured more than 17,800.
Hundreds of thousands of buildings, including ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples, were destroyed and many more damaged.
Mountaineers seeking to scale the world's tallest peak have called off this year's Everest season after 18 people died when last month's quake triggered avalanches on the mountain.