SINGAPORE — Nepal was again hit by a series of quakes yesterday (May 12), more than two weeks after a major tremor left over 8,000 dead. At least 16 have been killed and hundreds injured after the various quakes yesterday.

Channel NewsAsia managed to contact Mr Satwant Singh, secretary of the Board of Directors at Mercy Relief Singapore, who is part of a team of three providing relief to those affected by the first quake.

“There is a lot of panic here, people are out on the streets, nobody is in the buildings. Everybody has stopped doing what they are doing - even the team has stopped doing work at this point of time. We are just waiting to assess (the situation) and see what happens next,” said Mr Singh.

The team is in Dolakha district, northeast of Kathmandu along Tama Koshi Road - about 50 kilometres away from the epicentres of the two major quakes around Namche Bazar and Ramechhap. These measured 7.3 and 6.3 in magnitude respectively, according to the US Geological Survey.

While the team remains unharmed, they said landslides have cut them off on both sides of the road.

The Singapore Red Cross team, which is based further away in Bidur Nuwakot, northwest of Kathmandu, said there was no obvious damage to the surrounding buildings.

“We will continue to conduct our medical activities at Bidur as planned. Some of our team, (including) myself, will go to Kathmandu and will try to see what the status of the situation of the recent earthquake is like. From there we will be better (equipped to) ascertain (the situation),” said the Singapore Red Cross’ director of Community and International Services Sahari Ani. “For the moment, we are still seeing patients from the earlier earthquake. We are seeing about 300 patients.” CHANNEL NEWSASIA